Room for Rent Scammer - [email protected]

From: Elisa Fantel < [email protected] >
To: Michelle
Sent: Mon, 22 March, 2010 18:37:01
Subject: Re: Reply to your ad: two bedroom flat

Hello,

My name is Elisa Fantin and I am from Denmark and the flat is still available for rent. I had an aunt in UK and after her death she left me her apartment in UK a few years ago.
The flat was redecorated last year and the flat is looking very nice and clean. The property has a fully furnished kitchen,clean and well tidy sitting rooms,laundry room,and fully furnished with home utilities like: electric shower, Lounge,Vacuum Cleaner,Toaster, Oven and microwave, dryer, iron, washing machine , refrigerator , dishwahser, powershower, heater, cable ready,tv set and dvd player,internet conection, equiped kitchen and everything a house needs. I'm interrested in finding someone clean who can take care of this house more than getting money from renting it if you know what I mean.
Till last month the apartment was rented by some students from Germany and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent. The price I want is 530 UK pounds per month and the advance it's the price for the first 1 months(1 advance and 1 guarantee).
If you have the money I could come in the next few days to show you the apartment and maybe sign the rental agreement if you like it but first I have to be sure you are honest you really do need a place to live because two weeks ago a person from Manchester told me he is really interested and he asked me to go to Manchester to meet him and sign the rental agreement and when I arrived there no person showed up to rent my place and I lost time and money for nothing.
I will wait for your e-mail

From: Elisa Fantel <[email protected]>
To: Michelle
Sent: Mon, 22 March, 2010 22:01:55

Subject: Re: Reply to your ad: two bedroom flat

Hello,
I will attach some pictures of the flat and also a model of the rental contract! The flat is located on Collier Street M3 1, but I can`t give you the exactly address because there`s no one living out there and I`m afraid of thief's! Please accept my apologies for this but I hope you understand me because I`m in Denmark right now! The property benefits from access to beautifully maintained communal gardens and comprises reception room, kitchen with washing machine/tumble dryer, master bedroom with fitted wardrobes and en suite bathroom, second bedroom with fitted wardrobe and bathroom.
In the kitchen there is a dishwasher and also a Big fridge freezer! Regarding the council tax I can tell you that it is included in the price of £530 per month and also Sky TV,internet broadband,gas and electricity are also included in this price! I am intrested in a minimum six month agreement and I request two months advance rent payment plus one month refundable deposit (530) wich you will get it back at the end of the contract.
Regarding the plummets and all that kind of stuff I can tell you that the flat was recently renovated and all electrical part and plummets are new so that won`t be necessary any repairs anyway I have a person who can manage this starting from May.
We can sign the rental contract starting from next weekend but I need to be sure that you have serious intentions in renting the flat that`s why I attach here a model of the tenancy agreement and also we can discuss the terms when we will meet!
If you are decided to view the flat let me know because there is another person interested in reserving it!
Kind regards

The thief will tell you that you can rent his accommodation only if you can prove that you have genuine interest. He will ask you send money by wire transfer (normally Western Union) to yourself or a member of the family to show that you have sufficient finances and that you are not a "time waster".

Another variation of this scam is that you need to send (by Western Union) money in order that the keys and other documents can be couriered to you

He will ask you to send him the transfer details.

Make no mistake ! Western Union Transfers can be picked up virtually anywhere in the world and with the minimum of identification. They are almost impossible to trace once the money has been collected. You will never get to see the accommodation or your money again.

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 Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment by Western Union 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.

Wow, dear Elisa certainly has a large number of deceased aunts poor love! Just almost agreed to meet until I got the Western Union email, all emails exactly the same as the ones shown by others, just price and addresses different. Didnt even seem to matter that I mentioned I have a 2 year old and needed to check there's be a bedroom for her! Thank god I googled her name before agreeing anything or she (or whoever is behind this) would have taken a huge amount of money from a single parent who thought they'd found an amazing deal!

It appears that 'Elisa' is still going strong.
We saw her advert for a property in Bristol and emailed her for info on the 21st May. The ad appeared on Gumtree.co.uk (but we now know that the advert is on many websites offering the exact same peoperty!).
She emailed back with an almost identical email to the one above, but thankfully, I am a suspicious person! £490 for a 2 bed apartment in the center of Bristol city, inclusive of all bills seemed a little too good to be true.
When she emailed further pictures, the view from the living room windows didn't quite seem to correspond to the street where they said it was. Following this we typed her email into Facebook and it bought up a link to this website. Thank god!
We're yet to recieve further emails regarding Western Union transfers, but the ad has since been removed from Gumtree, so hopefully this criminals time is up!