Rental Scammer- [email protected]

The owner of this home was notified by a citizen that someone claiming to be the homeowner was trying to rent the house. Turns out, she drove by the property, saw that it was for sale and alerted the real homeowner of the scam. The fraudster identified himself/herself as Leanna Rand and her her husband Steven. The Moneygram or Western Union payment was to be sent to : Leanna Rand, Longview State, Washington, 98632. When the scammer was confronted with suspicion, he became hostile and stated that he would not rent to the prospective tenant anymore, and when confronted with the actual 'House fro Sale ad', broke off communication alltogether. Below is the rental 'application' the scammer sent out. All of the red flags were on this one:

1) Bad command of English
2) Asking for money by Moneygram or Western Union
3) Repeated religious references
4) Not being in town to show the house
5) Unreasonably low rent for the area/size of the house

Be vigilant out there!


Subject: Fwd: FW: HOUSE FOR RENT !!!****emails from fraudster****



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 8:09 PM
Subject: FW: HOUSE FOR RENT !!!****emails from fraudster****
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>


>Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 08:51:22 -0700
>From: [email protected]
>Subject: HOUSE FOR RENT !!!
>To: dolly
>
>Thanks for your warm and quick response..I hope this message finds you
>happy,healthy and well today. My wife and I own the house and also want
>you to know that it was the transfer of my wife to Poland because she is in the military so she has to work and me been in my moms place in
>Washington because she is sick,and i am here to take care of her,so that makes us to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and
>looking for a responsible person and God fearing person who can take
>very good care of the house in our absence...we are not after the money
>for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the person that
>will rent it to take it as if it were its own.we try to look for a
>Realtor that we can give the keys and documents,even showing the house
>to interested tenant before we left but could not find, and we as well
>do not want our house to be used any how in our absence that is why we
>took it along with us.I hope you will promise me to
>take very good care of the House..I am a man of
>God and i stick to my words and i am God fearing and my life has been devoted to the
>Almighty
>Lord....So the House is very big and nice and it is in a nice area I
>have received many proposals today for my property. So i hope you will
>promise us that you will take very good care of the house. So get back
>to me if you know you could take care of our house.I want you to check
>out all the pictures i sent to you,it contains the Inside of my house
>and the outside so that is what you will be renting,i hope you
>love
>the pictures of the house i sent,, Hope you are okay with the price of
>$900 per month and deposit of $700.Please i am looking for a serious
>tenant as you can see the house is ready waiting for a new tenant..All i
>am looking for is a lucky tenant that will rent my house because it is a
>give away so HURRY.
>GENERAL HOUSE FEATURES:
>ADDRESS: 5 Park Lane
>Toronto, Ontario,M8Y 1R7,CANADA
>Rent Per Month: *$900* (Including All Utilities)
>Security Deposit: $700 (Refundable)
>Large 3 Bedroom 2 Bathroom
>There is also high speed wireless internet access.
>PETS: Allowed
>Directly Available
>Regards

--

The same person (Leanna Rand) just tried to scam me with a place in Calgary, AB. Under a different (but same) email address: [email protected].
Same format of the information as well:

GENERAL HOUSE FEATURES:
ADDRESS: 139 Rundlefield Crescent NE
Calgary (North East) Alberta T1Y 2L8, Canada
Rent Per Month: *$900* (Including All Utilities)
Security Deposit: $700 (Refundable)
Large 3 Bedroom 2 Bathroom
There is also high speed wireless internet access.
PETS: Allowed
Regards

The conversation was through text message, the person said they were in Washington with their sick mother. I asked when I they would be back from Washington so that we could have a visit, they said they would be back next year, but they could send me the keys if I was "serious". That's when I decided to search results for her name and I found this thread (thank you by the way).

Welcome to Scamwarners Murphy1122,

Thank you for updating this thread. If you can not see the inside of the rental. I would consider it a scam.

The same person contacted me after I posted a wanted ad and used the exact same language.
The place they were offering was a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom place in Regina
2511 12th Ave
500 a month
400 deposit.
Which, considering the rental situation is absolutely ridiculous. They gave the same story about their wife being gone and him being in Washington with a sick mother.