Rental Scammer - [email protected]

And here's another one which is very similar but which uses the same phone number:

From: day by day <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, 29 August 2013, 0:19
Subject: Re: Details about your appt

Thanks for the mail. I am Joseph A Joyce. I own the €350/ 1br - Spacious and well maintained 1BR/1BA City center apartment in Vienna (wiedner hauptstraße135, 135, Margareten, Vienna, 1050 Austria,and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes I and my wife to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and we are looking for a responsible person that can take good care of the apartment, as we are not after the money for the rent, but we want it to be clean at all time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in United Kingdom in our new house and also the keys of the apartment is with our agent, who is currently there in the country. I and my wife came over to United Kingdom for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the condo. So get back to me on how you could take care of our apartment or perhaps experience you had in renting home. Hope you are okay with the price of €350 monthly payment with hydro,heat laundry facilities, air condition and so on. I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house rented out to you and also the keys and the document from my agent. You are free to call me on my private phone number +447031900314.
Await your reply.
Thanks

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.