Help !!

Hello Katherine,

My wife and I have gone through your application and have found it satisfactory, so we will say at this point “Congratulations" you are now our tenant and we want you to always pay your Monthly rental fee on time to avoid any form of embarrassment. My Wife will be receiving the refundable security deposit along with the 1st Month rent fee paid to her through a wire transfer so as to secure our home for you and take it off market which automatically makes no one contact us for the same house you are renting. She will also be signing on the Lease/Rental Agreement in a hard copy paper before shipping the keys along with the hard copy paperwork to your present home address. Can you please re confirm your present home address? And upon receiving the deposits we will secure our home for you and take it off market and get the keys shipped to your present home address along with a tracking # to let you know the exact time you will be receiving the package. Please do confirm your present home address by sending it again through the email so that we do not make mistake when shipping to you. When do you plan moving into our home when you receive the keys; Let me know immediately so that we can make arrangement on your move in date. so you have nothing to worry about cos you are dealing with the real owner of the home, so am assuring you with 100% assurance that you are safe and you will not and will never regret ever dealing with my family cos we came from a good Christian home, so be rest assured that you are safe. Get back to me for payment information.

Remain Blessed,
Mr. Chamberlain & Family


----- Original Message -----

Welcome to Scamwarners Klima.

The mail gives every indication of being written by someone of West African origin.

How specifically do they want you send payment ? I don't need bank details but I suspect they actually mean Western Union. If it's a scammer you won't be told this up front.

If possible I'd get someone to check out the address of the property they've given you. It's easy for someone to copy someone else's advert and just alter some details.

Another simple thing would be to ask them to give you a landline number to call in that area. Scammers very often happen to be abroad and uncontactable.

I will take it a step farther than Terrance. I don't care how they ask you to pay. It IS a scam.

She will also be signing on the Lease/Rental Agreement in a hard copy paper before shipping the keys along with the hard copy paperwork to your present home address.

Even if we ignore the bog-standard African English and the usual Christian reference intended to make you believe you must be dealing with an honest person, real property owners do NOT take their keys with them and mail them to prospective tenants they have never met. Real property owners will either use an agent, or they will have a friend, neighbor or family member nearby who can meet you and who can also provide the keys. If they care about their property as much as they claim, they are going to want to meet you (or have someone meet you) just to get a better impression of you. And if we disregarded that, landlords have legal responsibilities and need to be prepared for emergencies related to maintenance of their properties, and they can't just move halfway across the world without some kind of arrangement. What happens if part of the roof blows off in a storm or the place floods? No legitimate property owner won't have something set up.

This "send me money and I will send you keys" arrangement exists only in the world of African scammers.

I am glad you asked the question Klima. As my wise colleagues have indicated, it is a definite scam and your best course of action is to cease all contact with the fraudulent trickster with immediate effect. Everything in the (above) email you received is a lie. Has been purely fabricated to swindle money from you!

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