Rental Scammer - [email protected]

From: Larry Shank <[email protected]>
Date: January 30, 2013, 11:11
To: Con Warner
Subject: Re: $900 / 3br - 1858ft² - $900 / 3br - 1858ft² - House in 'Old midland', All bills paid including cable and wireless in ( Midland TX 79705 ) ( Midland TX 79705 )

Hello,

Thanks for your interest in my property, the home is still available and ready for move in. I am Reverend Larry Shank the house is located at 2504 Terrace Ave, Midland TX 79705, This home has been totally remodeled. new appliances, RO System and soft water and landscape service included. Great home has it all and utilities are included in the rent. I and family are currently in New York Mills, Minnesota for missionary call where I work with a group called (First Baptist Hurst ) . Before we left Midland TX we search for a God fearing and reputable agent who can take good care of the house but we couldn't get any honest agent . all agent we came across are not honest and they are ripper, The first agent we put our house in care almost get us in trouble by renting out my house to many applicant but thanks to God we have settled the issue, currently i have order them to remove there sign board away from my house , i am sure there most have done that but in case they have not remove it dont contact them for any reason, You can reach agreement with me owner , because of the issue i experience with those dishonest agent We decide to left with the key, remote and the papers. I'm willing to rent out the home to a person who can promise me he/she will care for the house as we use to do when we are in the state and who is able to come up with monthly rent of $900 and a security deposit of $1200($2100) but Security Deposit first as a move in deposit and I will like him/her to assure me that the house will be properly managed. Concerning the lease, duration is minimum of 6 months, 12 months or according to the wish of -tenant need. I have received some proposals regarding the rent because it is located in a very good area of Midland TX but I still have to make sure it is rented out to someone who can take good care of it.

I'm giving out the home with such a reasonable amount because I am only paying God back for his kindness and mercy over me and my family with that I have asked for such a reasonable amount. It`s also a pride for me to work for him on a missionary work. Also I need someone/a family that will take good care of the house as their own property. We would be here in New York Mills, Minnesota for 7 years with my family throughout our missionary call If you can assure me that you can take proper care of the property and also you can afford the move in deposit, kindly confirm your interest by getting
back to me with the below application details





RENT APPLICATION DETAILS



FIRST NAME:__________________

MIDDLE NAME: _________________

LAST NAME: __________________

PROFESSION: ________________

PHONE (____) __________

(CELL)PHONE (____) __________

(WORK)PHONE (____) __________

(HOME)KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________

PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________

CITY: _______________

STATE: ______________

ZIPCODE: ____________ HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTING

WHY ARE YOU LEAVING? IF THIS HOUSE IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,HOW LONG DO YOU

INTEND STAYING? ____________

WHEN CAN YOU PAY FOR YOUR DEPOSIT AND RENT TO SECURE OR MOVE IN?

WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________

IF YOU HAVE A PET,

NAME OF PET: _____________

KIND OF PETS: _____________

HABITS

DO YOU SMOKE? ______________

DO YOU DRINK? ______________

DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT?


Note: You can drive by the house for now to see the outside since i and every member of my family are out of town due to my missionary work and as soon as you have the keys and documents with you, then you can view the interior. Await your prompt reply so that we can discuss on the rental terms and agreement, please we are renting the house to you base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words. So please do not let us down in maintaining this our property and God bless you more as you do this.I'll be looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you. The Lord Almighty has been good to me, I am paying him back with my missionary call. I could let you remain in the house till I come back if you are a good tenant.



God Bless You.

Sincere Regards

Reverend Larry Shank

This person asks for a deposit payment via Western Union, MoneyGram or bank transfer with a promise that you can have the keys to a property that does not belong to him.

Sounds safe. It's not!

At other times, he will ask for proof that you are able to pay the deposit and rent due to a string of time wasters.
This proof is in the form of a Western Union or MoneyGram payment to a lawyer,a friend or family member.

In either case, if payment is made and you give this person the details, they will collect the money.
You will not hear from them again.

All the details such as names, addresses, pictures etc. that the scammer uses in order to back up his story, are stolen from elsewhere.

If you are reading this because you are looking for property to rent, and you are in contact with this thief you are probably searching Craigslist, Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment before viewing, then it will also be a scam. Please forward the mail to me at the address in my signature line and I will investigate and list them if necessary.

Yeah, this guy is a piece of work. He posted a 3 bedroom house rental on an ad on craigslist and I almost fell for it. I didn't give him the money or anything, but I did give him some of my personal information to contact me, so we texted back and forth.

This person told me that his previous rental agents are dishonest, so if there is a sign on the property when I go to view the outside, I should not contact them for any reason. That sprung up the red flag: whether or not his agents were dishonest about money, they would have no reason to be dishonest about anything else (e.g. who owns/rents out the property, etc). Why should I not, as he put it, "contact them for anything?" So, I started doing internet research to track this person down. Then, I found this site.

Isn't there anything to be done? Can't I report this person to the police or anything? I mean, I haven't personally been the victim of a crime, but I almost was, and due to the nature of this posting it is obvious that this "Reverend Larry Shank" has obviously committed crimes in the past and should be prosecuted for this. I suppose it's up to the people who were victimized to press charges, but I wish there was more that could be done to prevent this con artist from striking again in the future.

If anyone is curious, his phone number is 1-240-452-0854 and the address for the "rental" he posted was 7018 NE 56th Ave, Vancouver, WA 98661.

Good news! I reported this fu%$#@ to the FBI. I hope they do something about this person.

Thanks for posting this! It saved us a huge headache. This same guy tried to rent us a house in Bellevue, Washington. He is using the same phone number (240) 452-0854 and sent me the exact email you posted with a different address and dollar amounts. He used the name "Reverend Mark J. Felix". We found the ad for the rental on Craigslist. He replied to my first email, then we texted back and forth about viewing the outside of the house. It was a red flag when he said all utilities were included, that we couldn't see the inside of the house, and Google couldn't find this 'reverend' by name.

We reported him to the Bellevue Police department but they said they couldn't do much since his activity was all online and by text. He could be anywhere. Thanks again for the warning! It's sad that this guy has been doing the same scam for years using the same phone number and poorly written email.