Rental Scammer - [email protected]

I have encountered the same people/person in Washington DC. They sent me the exact same set of emails but their names have changed to John and Mary Kennedy and the email addresses are [email protected] and [email protected]

Hello,

Thanks for your email . I'm John Kennedy the owner of the Apartment you are in renting.Actually I resided in the apartment with my family for some months and we moved away due to my transfer from my working place, my apartment is still available for rent for $600 per month including the utilities like washer and security,it is furnished.Right now I'm in West Africa for a crusade and i would like you to get in touch with my wife in the United states for more discussion as she is with the keys and the documents to the apartment.Please I want you to note that,i am a kind and honest man and also I spent a lot on my property,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this apartment and I want you to treat it as your own.I want you to keep it tidy all the time so that I will be glad to see it neat when I come for a check up,I do that once in a while.I want to have trust in you as I always stand by my words.Let us know how soon you are willing to move in.Email my wife Mary ,on ( [email protected] ) and she will attend to you better.

ADDRESS TO THE APARTMENT : 22 Concord Ave Cambridge, MA 02138

Thanks for your interest.
John Kennedy

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.

I stumbled on this person/people in DC as well. The email account associated with CraigsList is [email protected]. I did a search on www.addresssearch.com for this email address and [email protected] and both came up as Mountain View, CA and the IP addresses are 74.125.227.149 74.125.227.214

Hey,

the same person was trying to rent me a fully furnished flat in Pasadena for 680 a month. I was first contacted by John Kenedy, who is a man in West Africa on the mission to God and he forwarded my email to his wife Mary, who is in Portland, Oregon and will get in touch with me.

Before I googled their e-mail it was all suspicious for 5 reasons:
1) Mistakes in spelling, grammar issues (no person with finished primary school could have written that)
2) Mary lives in Porland, why on earth would she move out of Pasadena before renting the place out?
3) Mary's email [email protected] is very suspicious and was in fact my first cue that this is scum.
4) Mary has the keys with her in Oregon, she couldn't leave them with friends here?
5) Mary explains a lot of details about why they want to rent it out without ever meeting, but wants reply ASAP.

Watch out, never Western Union anybody you don't know 100%.

Currently asking for payment to the details below...

Receiver's name: JOHN KENDY
Receiver's Address: 19 CHAPEL AVENUE
City: IKOYI
State: LAGOS
Country:NIGERIA
Zip code: 23401

Thank you for posting this. I received the first reply from John and I almost sent an email to "his wife."

I'm sure when it gets to the Western Union part, I'd laugh my head off instead of spending another minute with them. But I really appreciate seeing this so I wouldn't have wasted any time after this.

I pondered why this man would be in West Africa so soon after he posts the ad, and if he was a scam why he wouldn't just use the xdapartmenting email for craigslist. So I thought maybe xdapartmenting email is "blacklisted." So I did a search on tht email and it got me here to this thread. Now i can just ignore and move on. I thought it would be too goo to be true at that price at Menlo Park, CA.