Room for Rent and other rental scams
by Red Onion Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:24 am
Hi All,

I advertised a room in my house for rent through Gumtree and I had an instant reply from unknown number with a request to contact her on her email.

Her:
Hi,am Susan,23 year old,Female.Am interested in your vacancy you have for rent,if if you still have it available pls contact me on([email protected])


Note: I re-write her text exactly as it was.

I replied to her email saying that the room is still available and then 'she' sent me an instant reply.
Here is the messages:

Thanks for getting back to me,i will like to know the nearest university to your location before i proceed with the rent,so kindly get back to me with the nearest university to your vacancy,i will reply you with my full details.wish to hear from you soon.


I then emailed her the name of the nearest university from the house (Xxxxx University). And then she replied instantly.

Hi ,
I am Susan Benson and I am interested in the vacancy you have for rent.I am presently in China that is where i stay and school with my parent. i will be attending Xxxxxxx Uni, i just want to be sure of my search cause am a international student,I'm 23yrs old,female,i was born and grew up in Uk, but i later relocate, I am really a sincere and honest person.a caring,kind,friendly very easy to get along with am intelligent cool headed adaptive have a big heart and i do believe in the truth and honesty..Cause honesty is the only key to human success and with honest you can easily archive your aims. and my hobbies are reading,making friends,cooking and singing,i like playing piano, I don't attend late night parties,i don't smoke and i will not be coming with a pet...i am easy going and friendly.i am quiet and clean and i will love to stay in a clean environment.. I would like to make an inquiry if the room is still available for rent and the duration in which you want to lease the unit.i will like to secure the place before my arrival and i will like to know how to secure it cos my father will be responsible for the payment and he said he will like to make all arrangement for me before coming to Australia.
pls let me have more details about you and the vacancy.
Here are the details i need
1- Security deposit fee ?
2- Monthly rent fees ?
3- Utilities if applicable ?
4- Dimension/measurement of the unit {s} ?
5- Crime rate of the area where the apt is located ?
6- Park lots if any ?
7- If the unit is Furnished or Unfurnished ?
8- Total Move in fees ?
9-How long will you rent the room?
Wish to hear from you soon
Thanks


After I answer some of her questions, 'she' then sent me an quick reply.

Thanks for your response,am planning to arrive on the 29th of july,i will appreciate it if you can send me some picture of the room, just to see how it look like



'She' then gave me another email:

Thanks for the reply ,i think am OK with the room and the rent fee,i will get your Email Address forward to my dad,so you can discuss about the payment cause he will be responsible for the payment.Here is my dad email([email protected])you can also give him a mail,my dad will get back to you as soon as my mail deliver to him,wish to see you soon.
Regards


And the 'daddy' also sent me an email:

Thanks for the mail,am Gabriel,Susan's father,i will be responsible for her accommodation payment,am presently at the sea i am a marine engineer and due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check mail and reply you,Susan make me understand she is Ok with your rent and am ready to make the payment now,please kindly help me to assist my daughter in anyway cause she is my only child,i lost her mother last year November in a car crash,and i promised to take care of Susan till my last day on earth,so i want you to see her as your family,friend and sister.i hope to place you a visit soon.
About the payment,I insist on paypal and i can also make a transfer from my paypal to your bank,i don't have Internet banking,but i can make the payment from my paypal account cause is link to my bank.
i will need you to give me your paypal account email and the total amount i will need to send to cover the rent for two month in advance,i will make the payment immediately you get back to me with the details and please if you don't have paypal account yet,it is very easy to set up,go to http://www.paypal.com and get it set up,after you have set it up,i will only need your paypal email address you use to register for your account to make the payment.
i will be waiting to hear from you soon.
Thanks


I did not reply to his email but I am sure these scammers are the same persons that after your money.

I do not know that they can create such a cute family story like this.
I particularly like how they create the Susan Benson's character as : really a sincere and honest person, intelligent cool headed adaptive have a big heart and she does believe in the truth and honesty..Cause honesty is the only key to human success and with honest you can easily archive your aims.

Please stay safe, everyone!

Added quotations (BW)
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by Bryon Williams Mon Jul 29, 2013 9:59 am
Welcome to Scamwarners Red Onion,

It is 100% scam.

Scammers try hard to make their characters believable. They work on the emotions of their targeted victims.
Nothing they say is real. Their goal is to steal your money. The only real fact they will tell you is where to send the money.

Please contacta moferatorstor if you have a question or information about this post.



Please do not tell the scammer he is posted here.


Please remember the fallen. https://www.odmp.org/
by xredwood Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:32 pm
I just received the same message from the number 6300882 which seemed suspicious enough to start with. So there is no point replying then I'm assuming? Did you ever get any more details out of them?
by Red Onion Tue Aug 13, 2013 11:47 am
Hi xredwood,

I stop emailing those scammers since the 'gabrielbenson' daddy sent me the last email.
I did not receive any more replies or respond from them so the communication stopped right there (I did not get anymore details).

Err.. I am not sure what the numbers that you are talking about, when I got the text message from 'susan benson' my mobile phone did not show any number from the sender. It was just described as 'blaster'. And I do not know what does 'blaster' mean.
If I may add one more story, after I received the scammer's last email, I deleted my rental ads in Gumtree.
I then created a new ads (but still advertising the same room) using different pictures.
Well, I got a text message asking me to send an email to [email protected].

I could not remember what was the sender's number, I deleted it straight away as I assume it came from the same scammers. This time, the text message was different from the previous one, it was saying that 'please i prefer email'
I remember that there was some numbers recorded by my mobile phone, and not showing 'blaster' like the last time. Not too sure how that works, actually.
Maybe they are using different methods in sending text messages?
However, I remember the numbers shown on my mobile phone is a bit funny, it was not like what a normal mobile phone numbers would look like. It was just too weird.

I think you would better off ignoring suspicious message from unknown numbers. Genuine buyers/tenants will contact you properly or call you to express their interest and not asking us to contact them by email.

Sorry I did not reply to you sooner, I was away from my computer because of work.
by sophie5456 Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:46 pm
I don't understand. How can they rip you off by just having a paypal email address?
by Con Warner Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:14 am
The emails claiming to be from Paypal are fake. In this case, he will send an email claiming to be from Paypal, confirming your funds. The payment amount will be for more than expected and he will ask you to send the excess to his "shipper" via another means such as Western Union in order to pay for personal items to be sent.

No funds have been sent to the paypal account and the money that you send is collected by the scammer.

Email: [email protected]

Latest updates regarding Internet Fraud: http://www.antifraudnews.com
by sophie5456 Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:46 am
I see:). Thanks, Mr. Con Warner. Goes to show how new I am at this, but boy am I glad to learn about it from this site instead of being ripped off by someone instead.
by RomanFCST Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:54 am
Hi guys, I've got the the same emails, I stopped it when daddy mentioned to pay for her flight ticket and he at the same time "sent" me a rent plus money for imaginary flight ticket.
Is it OK just ignore this email, or should I change my password or whats more, should I change my email at all because of safety? What your experience? Thanks a lot
by narayan Fri Sep 06, 2013 6:43 pm
I have received this exact same email thread. I was just searching 'susan benson china 23yrs' and stumbled on this. Thanks.
by katy1333 Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:05 am
Hi Guys,

I have been contacted with the exact same emails - different addresses though - they are now :

[email protected]
[email protected]

And the next email in the chain looks like this:

I was just about to make the payment when i had this little problem with my travel agent,i just got an email from him that i have to balance him $800 for my daughter flight ticket in Emirates-airlines and the only form of payment they accept is western union money transfer and i tired to pay it online but i will need my credit card which i didn't bring along to the sea and i don't have access to online banking,and there is no post office(there is usually a western union section in most post offices) or any western union agent offshore!so i have to ask you to help me with my daughter flight fee.i will be sending the rent fee for two month,so i will include the $800 balance to the payment i will be making through paypal to your account for her flight ticket,please just try to help me by sending the travel agent fee,i never know this will come up,and Susan is now planning to arrive on the 24th of Sep.After i have made the payment and it has been confirmed by paypal,i will need you to help me to send the $800 to my travel agent through western union money transfer,the western union money transfer can be made at any post office near to you,there is always a western union agent in most post offices or online at www.westernunion.com. i will be making the payment shortly and i will email you as soon as it has been done.
Thanks

Just adding this for the people like me, that assume the best in people! Obviously saw the last email and knew something was wrong and stopped contact.

I think the confirmation emails from PayPal are probably the part that gets most people, unless you know what a genuine confirmation from PayPal looks like, I can see why some people might be convinced!

Just thought I would share to try and stop this kind of scamming... its disgusting really!
by Suichan710 Mon Sep 30, 2013 12:43 pm
You guys dunno HOW GLAD i am that u wrote this down!!

i was assisting my mum to help her n we got these ppls too. here was there last part of the email that we received from them, using the "father's" email, [email protected]

"I just want to inform you that i have completed the payment,i hope you must have been notified in your email about the payment i made through PayPal, you can check your e-mail spam and other folders for confirmation of payment,I have just make the payment of $2,400. for the rent and i have decided to add the amount of $900 which i paid through PayPal,So please i will like you to help me wire the sum of $800 to the travel agent via western union so he can be able to schedule my daughter flight and also PayPal said they won't release the funds until they get the western union information from you,i will need you to send the $800 to Travel agent via western union money transfer(this can be done from the post office,or online at (http://www.westernunion.com)as they usually have a western union agent there) , i added extra $100 to cover the western union charges Here is the agent info needed to get the money sent through western union money transfer.here is the travel agent details below......


Nan Song

Address: 50, Daxue Road
City: Nanning
State: Guangxi
Zip Code: 530008
Country: P.R. CHINA.

Please kindly email the necessary details to paypal :the MTCN which will be given to you at the western union after the $800 has been sent as well as the sender's name and address used to send the money through western union,so i can forward it to the Travel agent.

Thanks



N This was the email b4 the made the "payment"


I was just about to make the payment when i had this little problem with my travel agent,i just got an email from him that i have to balance him $800 for my daughter flight ticket in Emirates-airlines and the only form of payment they accept is western union money transfer and i tired to pay it online but i will need my credit card which i didn't bring along to the sea and i don't have access to online banking,and there is no post office(there is usually a western union section in most post offices) or any western union agent offshore!so i have to ask you to help me with my daughter flight fee.i will be sending the rent fee for two month,so i will include the $800 balance to the payment i will be making through paypal to your account for her flight ticket,please just try to help me by sending the travel agent fee,i never know this will come up,and Susan is now planning to arrive on the 7th of Oct.After i have made the payment and it has been confirmed by paypal,i will need you to help me to send the $800 to my travel agent through western union money transfer,the western union money transfer can be made at any post office near to you,there is always a western union agent in most post offices or online at http://www.westernunion.com. i will be making the payment shortly and i will email you as soon as it has been done.

Thanks


we haven't gona any further than that, nor with the payment or anything. we've deactivated the paypal account n reported the scam. thanks SOOOOOOOOO MUCH u guys for putting this up!!

Sui (>D<)
by librium Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:13 pm
Hey everyone

I have had almost exactly the emails sent to me over the last week from

[email protected] and [email protected]

I had a funny feeling something wasn't right while emailing with these people but they offered me a profile of someone I was looking for to rent a room out to. As soon as they started making excuses about flights and asking for money to be sent I knew I'd better check to see if it was a scam. Thanks everyone for posting this report, it saved me from having to email paypal directly about the supposed money transfer.

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