Not sure if it is rental scam or not.

Hi everyone, I have been looking for accommodation in Germany but I stroke bad luck and I found a few scammers (luckily, I didn't send any money) and now I found this guy: He is called Federico La-chica Garrido. He told me that the flat was his mother's who's German, but she is poorly so she went to Spain with his father who is Spanish and that he takes care of the flat. He also said that he is currently in Manchester and works for a construction company. When I asked him how he would like me to send him the money and how he would send me the keys this was his answer:

ME: so if i decided to rent it out, how would you get keys to me and how would you expect me to send the money?
Federico La-Chica Garrido: i will get the flat keys posted to your current address
Federico La-Chica Garrido: abd you first need to sign up the lease contract agreement contract first
Federico La-Chica Garrido: i just need your details to prepare the lease contract agreement
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and it will be prepared and send to you
Federico La-Chica Garrido: you will print it out and read it carefully before you will sign
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and after you finished reading
Federico La-Chica Garrido: you will sign and scan it back to me immediately so that i can sign also
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and you make the payment of the first month rent with the security deposit with the sign copy of the lease contract agreement
Federico La-Chica Garrido: so that i can sign and i get the flat keys posted to your current address through dhl courier
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and you receive the flat keys
Federico La-Chica Garrido: ok
Federico La-Chica Garrido: just need your details to prepare the lease contract agreement contract

Then he accused me of being a scammer, because I said I want to see the flat before I pay for it and he said that he doesn't believe I have money, so if I can prove that I have money then he will book a ticket to Germany to show me the flat. When I asked how he would like me to show him I have the money he said:

Frederico La-Chica Garrido: make the payment to your friends or relatives name and address
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and you send me the scan copy as a proof
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and immediately i see that i will book my flight ticket and meet you
ME: send it by what?
Federico La-Chica Garrido: maybe western union poat banks
Federico La-Chica Garrido: post bank
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and you wait till i arrive in germany before canceal the transfer
Federico La-Chica Garrido: and both of us will go to western union

I do not trust him, but I am not really sure if I'm paranoid now, or what. The original E-mail he sent was this:

Received: by 10.66.220.10 with SMTP id ps10csp2249pac;
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 07:17:32 -0700 (PDT)
X-Received: by 10.60.133.235 with SMTP id pf11mr38889837oeb.38.1373725021154;
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Return-Path: < [email protected] >
Received: from mail-oa0-x244.google.com (mail-oa0-x244.google.com [2607:f8b0:4003:c02::244])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id ko2si22630903oeb.46.2013.07.13.07.17.00
for Removed (BW)
(version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 07:17:01 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 2607:f8b0:4003:c02::244 as permitted sender) client-ip=2607:f8b0:4003:c02::244;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 2607:f8b0:4003:c02::244 as permitted sender) [email protected];
dkim=pass [email protected]
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for <[email protected]>; Sat, 13 Jul 2013 07:17:00 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 10.182.47.137 as permitted sender) client-ip=10.182.47.137
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by 10.182.47.137 with SMTP id d9mr39437311obn.26.1373725020408 (num_hops = 1);
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 07:17:00 -0700 (PDT)
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d=gmail.com; s=20120113;
h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type
:content-transfer-encoding;
bh=5VxrOEVWaBI5caDaYXCdyrw/osAjnrN/bx5EsZbQ2X4=;
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U477YOzdNRF+Pi1mDIQaK6B1WJL+Rz0LfQTaqS9ItYUfs1EXVcXZ+Ld7y2UnGKGAnB9Q
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Ojfw==
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Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:17:00 +0100
Message-ID: <CAMz2HqdiEWrGXvXQcs1Z5Edb_OhvTPmvAjNKDZ+4K31C-3GJeQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Anfrage von zum,reply
From: dunmininu lodunyi <[email protected]>
To:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hello,Thanks for your fast response,The flat is still available,and
you can start to rent as fast as possible,I offer for rent my 2
furnished bedroom flat in a shared apartment,each of the room is 18m=B2
and located at Valleystra=DFe 58 81371 M=FCnchen,Germany.The apartment is
clean and fully equipped with a lovely kitchen,washing machine,bathtub
and internet.Each room is furnished with a double size
mattress,reading table and wardrobe.It is located in central
neighborhood.There is also a living/dining room available.Each of the
room is 350Euros including the cost of utility plus a security deposit
of 650Euros.The security deposit is refundable at the termination date
of the lease contract,and we can also skype and this is MY SKYPE
ID:(rich.smile1).Thanks and hope to hear from you soon.


Federico


What I also found weird is that he replied to my German email with an English mail.
Thanks so much for your help!

This is a Scam

Reading through the email, it just does not look right to me, however the headers have no valid ip in them, so I can't tell where it is from

Just by your being suspicious and posting here should be enough to tell you that it is dodgy

The writing of the email looks like that of a West African and is inconsistent with Spanish and German. Any time someone wants you to send money by Western Union and is not in your family or someone you've met in person, it's a scam. Scammers have been known to take money sent to a friend in this manner. And no real lessor would call you a scammer for wanting to see the apartment!

The headers have no valid IP address because the email is sent from a Gmail address to another Gmail address.

ETA: The name "Lodunyi" appears to be Yoruba.

As stated above it is a scam.

Scammers will tell you to send money to yourself, friend or family to prove that you are interested. Then the scammer will want a scan of the Western Union or Money Gram payment. This is because he does not need the Western Union 10 digit or the Money Gram 8 digit reference code to pick up the money. He has a contact in that business he can bribe to pick up the money. Please keep in mind Western Union and Money Gram payments can be picked up any where in the world. ID is not required in all locations. Scammers will make fake Id's to pick up the money. In popular scamming countries the clerk will look the other way for a bribe.

[email protected]
dunmininu lodunyi
SKYPE rich.smile1

Originating IP: 41.206.15.136
Originating ISP: Vgc Communication
City: n/a
Country of Origin: Nigeria