Rental scammer - [email protected]

Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:11
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Reply to your listing ID 18692 (1505-8TH AVE NW, CALGARY AB) on RentSpot.com
To: Con Warner

Hello!


Thanks for your email and interest in the property. I personally own the property and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that made me and my wife to leave the property and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at all time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in , United State in our new house and also with the keys and documents of the house, we try to look for an agent that we can give this documents before we left but could not see and we are as well as don't want our property to be used any how in our absence that is why we took it along with us. I and my wife came over to United State for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the house. kindly get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home. The rent fee is included all the utilities , no extra fee for parking, and you can rent it unfurnished.. there are sporting Equipment. I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application form to fill out and discuss on how to get the property for rent.




Thanks.

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.

Thank you for posting this. I was going back and forth with this person about a condo for 3 emails before feeling it was a "too good to be true" offer and googled the email bringing me to this page. The first response i got was identical to what you have posted, word for word. Following emails resembled what you have posted quite closely as well.

I found the condo that was being advertised on RentSpot.ca , direct link to their profile and 6 postings here:
http://rentspot.com/managers/16230/calgary/

The other person mentioned that there was a $700 damage deposit along with a $700 first months rental fee and after i have filled out their "application" (answering very generic questions in an email requesting my name, address, phone number, move in date, etc) that they would provide me with payment details to send the first month and damage deposit to, then Fedex Delivery will deliver the keys to me.

Definitely a scam, and i thank you for posting this.

Best part of the email:

My Name is Bobby while my wife name is Sarah and my Daughter name is Lindsey

They also posted a phone number to text:
1 (269) 815-0590

Hello Rizzu I am happy that you had a gut feeling it was a scam attempt.

What email address did the scammer use with you?

The same email, [email protected].

I humored them and filled out the "rent application form" with fake data except my name which they already knew. The address they provided me with was a USPS drop box location in the middle of Michigan. This was their full email response (for potential googlers who come across the same thing):

I'm going to keep playing with them and wasting their time now

*edit- All 6 of their postings have been taken down off RentSpot.ca

Great. I've received the rent application form from you. I will bevery happy to give the place to you to stay. I did fill the rent application form manually and other documents with the given name and address on the form. In the next few minutes, the lease agreement and other documents will be sign and ready for shipping by Next day air. I really want you to take good care of the place and tidy up always. You will need to make security deposit also, which is refundable at the end of tenancy.


If you can make out the money today it will be great so i can hold the place for you, The keys and documents to the place will be ship out today and deliver to your door after 48hours after the payment of the shipment. i want you to go to nearby store or post office to send the money via Money Gram transfer. i want you to send the damage deposit to the name and address below and once the money receive i will go ahead with the shipment of the package and get back to you with the shipment confirmation.



Receiver's Name: Bobby Noles
Address: 3101 river road
City: Sodus
State: Michigan
Zip Code: 49126
Country: United State



NB: In living room you will see a teddy bear(barney) that belongs to my daughter please help me to take good care of it for my daughter. he's are best friend, she misses barney so much.

Please do get back to me with the payment confirmation, I will process the shipping once the payment is received. you can as well deduct the Money Gram charges from the money and let me know the total money sent.



Thanks and Hoping to read from with the payment confirmation number and other information's from Transfer.

Thanks for posting! Please do not play with scammers if they have any real information about you. See http://forum.419eater.com for the precautions to take when playing with scammers.

I only saw your reply now, thank you for the attempted warning regardless however

I am currently on email reply #36 with this individual. As of approximately 1 hour ago, I have sent them to the post office a total of four different occasions to cash my invalid MoneyGram order and they are getting quite frustrated and have begun swearing in the email at how their time is being wasted (in significantly worse english).

I am so tied of this.. I was told it's a FAKE PAYMENT RECEIPT YOU SENT TO ME. THEY HAVE CALLED MONEY GRAM. I WAS IT;S A BIG LIE.

I have no shame in what I'm doing and I hope he's losing sleep over this.

*edit- I have also started referring to him as Booby instead of Bobby.

I will echo the recommendation that you check out 419eater for info on safe baiting.

Unfortunately, they may be pretending to have travelled, but the scammer has not left his seat. Since the receiver appears to be a US based mule, he can check the status of the transfer and find it is fake just by picking up the phone.