Room for Rent Scammer - [email protected]

From: Dilya Kudratova < [email protected] >
Date: Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: Reply to your ad: Spacious 2 bedroom flat.
To: Michelle


Hello,
My name is Dilya Kudratova and I am from Russia and the flat is still available for rent. I had an aunt in UK and after her death she left me her apartment from 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, Owen and microwave, dryer, iron, washing machine , refrigerator , dishwasher, power shower, heater, cable ready,TV set and DVD player,Internet connection, equipped kitchen and everything a house needs. I m interested in finding someone clean who can take care of this house more then 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 £440 per month,bills included and I am intrested in a long term agreement,minimum 6 month!
If you are decided to view the flat and have the money I could come in the next few days to show you the apartment and maybe sign the tenancy agreement if you like my flat(I am sure you will love it) but first I have to be sure you really do need a place to live because two weeks ago a person from Milton Keynes told me he is really interested and he asked me to go to Milton Keynes to meet him and sign the tenancy agreement and when I arrived there no person showed up to rent my place and I lost time and money for nothing. Please accept my apologises if I am rude but I hope you will understand me!

I will wait for your e-mail,Dilya Kudratova

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.

from Dilya Kudratova < [email protected] >
to Michelle
date 1 July 2010
subject Re: Reply to your ad: Spacious 2 bedroom flat.


Hello,
I will attach some pictures of the flat,floor plan and also a model of the rental contract! The flat is located on
182, Granby Court, MILTON KEYNES, MK1 1NQ but I can`t give you the exactly address because there`s no one living out there and I`m afraid of thief's and I do apologies for this but I hope you understand me because I`m in Russia 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 £440 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 (£440) 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 June.
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 rental contract 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 and its fair to let him know too!
Regards,Dilya Kudratova

This scammer also currently has an ad on domain.com.au. The ad is for a unit on Franklin Street in Melbourne for $335 a week.

Here is the post I received, nearly identical. Hopefully a reasonable warning for others!

Hello,
My name is Dilya Kudratova and I am from Russia and the flat is still available for rent. I had an aunt in Australia and after her death she left me her apartment from Melbourne 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, Owen and microwave, dryer, iron, washing machine , refrigerator , dishwasher, power shower, heater, cable ready,TV set and DVD player,Internet connection, equipped kitchen and everything a house needs. I m interested in finding someone clean who can take care of this house more then getting money from renting it if you know what I mean.
Till last month the apartment was rented by some students from Thailand and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent. The price I want is $335pw,$1340 per month,bills included and I am intrested in a long term agreement,minimum 6 month!
If you are decided to view the flat and have the money I could come in the next few days to show you the apartment and maybe sign the tenancy agreement if you like my flat(I am sure you will love it) but first I have to be sure you really do need a place to live because two weeks ago a person from Melbourne told me he is really interested and he asked me to go to Melbourne to meet him and sign the tenancy agreement and when I arrived there no person showed up to rent my place and I lost time and money for nothing. Please accept my apologises if I am rude but I hope you will understand me!
I will wait for your e-mail,Dilya Kudratova

Hi Betti, welcome to Scamwarners

I am glad you spotted it as a scam and avoided losing money, well done.

You seem to understand about this scam but if you have any questions please dont hesitate to ask

I received something very similar this morning about the apartment in Melbourne, it is being advertised on realestate.com and domain.com under the name Harry Jones.

"Hello,
My name is Dilya Kudratova and I am from Russia and the flat is still available for rent. I had an aunt in Australia and after her death she left me her apartment from Melbourne 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, Owen and microwave, dryer, iron, washing machine , refrigerator , dishwasher, power shower, heater, cable ready,TV set and DVD player,Internet connection, equipped kitchen and everything a house needs. I m interested in finding someone clean who can take care of this house more then getting money from renting it if you know what I mean.
Till last month the apartment was rented by some students from Thailand and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent. The price I want is $335pw,$1340 per month,bills included and I am intrested in a long term agreement,minimum 6 month!
If you are decided to view the flat and have the money I could come in the next few days to show you the apartment and maybe sign the tenancy agreement if you like my flat(I am sure you will love it) but first I have to be sure you really do need a place to live because two weeks ago a person from Melbourne told me he is really interested and he asked me to go to Melbourne to meet him and sign the tenancy agreement and when I arrived there no person showed up to rent my place and I lost time and money for nothing. Please accept my apologises if I am rude but I hope you will understand me!
I will wait for your e-mail,Dilya Kudratova"


Lucky I googled it as it seemed too good to be true!!

Hi KJ03, welcome to Scamwarners.

I am happy to hear you had some suspicions and did some searching, well done.

If you have any questions please ask

We also had the same problem as mentioned on the above posts.
(for an apartment in Hay Street - Perth).
Looking for western union receipt to be emailed on. If you look closely at the apartment photos for the Australian location, the plugs are UK plugs and not Oz plugs! Total scam. He/She has either an Aunt in Australia or an Aunt in the UK (depending on which apartment you are looking at!) We didn't go the western union stuff after reading about this and getting confirmation of complaints from the International Fraud Centre!

I have contacted the fraud department with UK Police, OZ Police and been in contact with the major rental property websites to let them know to pull the adds down etc.

Good news though - The international fraud centre said that they can use the IP address locator from my mail server to at least pinpoint where the mail originated and that they can push past most "Anonymous Email Servers" as these servers are usually only supperficial and carry on IP addresses can be easily sought.

Don't use this Scammer!!! All the above comments are true!!

Welcome here comstackcork.

You did a great job reporting this scam, this will save other people from being scammed.