Rental Scammer - [email protected]

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From: emily Emily <[email protected]>
To: Con Warner
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2013, 11:11
Subject: Room available

Hello,

Am Emily ,am 21 years old, My father owns the flat but is now late ,i live alone in the flat, Am a professional, I have been pretty busy , however, the room is still available .

The flat has 3 rooms ,One is for me and the other Two is available for rent.

The room has the following amenities:

The room has a very big bed that can sleep two people with
Television connected to cable
Small refrigerator apart from a big freezer in the kitchen
Private bathroom with toilet drawer
Reading desk
Wall cupboard
Internet connection

The Apartment has the following Amenities:

Washing Machine
Heater
Dish washer
Storage
A big living room fully furnished with a television connected to cable
Internet facility .

The transport facilities is quite okay in the area, the flat is very close to train station and public transport.

The rent per month is 400 Euros and a security deposit of 600 Euros ,The security is refundable, at the end of your stay in my flat, the security deposit will be refund back to you, The rent include all bills and bills are for Gas , Water , Electricity , tenement rate ,phone ,heater,internet connection.

I will send to you some pictures of the room and the rental agreement form to see what next to do, hope you understand me? Thanks once again for the interest in my room while waiting to read from you.

I will like to know about you.

I will like to have your skype id so that we can have a chat if you don't mind .

Best Regards,
Emily.

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.

hello, i almost hired this room. It sounds really trustworthy, i even got a copy of her passport and already emailed her mine? Is this dangerous?

How are you guys sure that this is a scammer?

The response to the questions above were already answered by email.
For the benefit of others, here's my answer...

The passport he sent you belongs to another victim who sent her passport to him. He may use yours in the future, in the same way but that is a minor irritation as he can't do anything else with it. Unfortunately, if he wishes to use it, there's nothing that you can do to stop him. He typically uses other people's ID for around four to eight weeks and then changes.

How am I sure that he's a scammer? Various reasons but try Googling a phrase from his initial email. I'm sure that he will have sent you his standard script that contains the line "My father owns the flat but is now late". Try Googling that with the quotation marks.
His earlier scripts were a little different and the phrase then would have been "My father owns the flat but he's now late"