Scam or not? Sick of this

Hi,

Me and my partner are looking for an appartment in Madrid, Spain so we posted an ad on the website justlanded.com where we already received a few obvious scam e-mails from. This one, however, is different and any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think it's important to note most appartment scams I've had to deal with were all 550 euros a month, so is this one and it simply is too cheap for the centre or Madrid. But you never know.. so here goes.


Them to us

From: "S.A TONEY" <[email protected]>
Subject: Antw.: Madrid Apartment

Hallo,

Madrid apartment,well furnished and well equipped kitchen.Centrally
located.The rent is 550Euros /month all inclusive.Internet
availability a plus

Available for short term and long term lease.

Interested person(s) should write.

Regards.

S.A.TONEY

Us to them:

Hello S.A. TONEY,

Thank you very much for the information.
Do you also have pictures of the apartment of all rooms and maybe the address of where it's located?
I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Them to us:

I have attached pictures of the apartment for you to see,download attachment to view pictures.

The apartment is located in the heart of the city centre on El Arenal,Madrid 28013.Calle metro station is walking distance.Madrid Barajas Airport is 19 Km away.

There are also restaurants; bars and visits along Calle Mayor and Place de St. Martin. The interesting Plaza de Orinete and National Theatre are within walking distance and show the heritage and culture of the Spanish Capital.

I will look forward to your reply.

Regards.

S.A.TONEY

Us to them:

Hello,

I was just thinking, is it an entire apartment I will be renting right? Or just a room?
Because I was re-reading our e-mails and it's not completly clear to me. I will be living in Madrid with my partner so a studentroom is not what we're looking for.
If we ar talking about an apartment I would very much like to proceed. This friday my school in Holland will let me know the exact dates of my stay in Madrid. I don't know how you usually proceed..? Do you have like a sort of contract or agreement that i'll have to sign?
Hope to hear from you.

With regards,

Them to us:

Hello,

It is an entire apartment and not a student room.Now i think it is cleared you.I am also a Dutch girl from Holland living here.My step father is the owner of the apartment,so you can write him at [email protected] to proceed with renting and reservation.

Regards.

S.A.TONEY

Us to them:

Dear Sir,

I had an e-mail conversation with your stephdaughter S.A. TONEY via a website called justlanded.com
She told me she had an apartment for rent on El Arenal,Madrid 28013 for €550 a month all costs and internet included. She also gave me your e-mailaddress to reservate this apartment and proceed with the renting procedure as you are the owner of the apartment.
Me and my partner would very much like to live in this apartment from january untill somewhere in june. I am a dutch student International Business & Languages. I am a very neat and clean person and I think I would be perfectly capable to take good care of the apartment.
I hope to hear from you soon.

With regards,

Them to us:

FOR BARRISTER THOMAS COOK CHAMBERS/THOMAS COOK ASSOCIATES

78 ABBEYWOOD ROAD ABBEYWOOD,LONDON,UK SE 2 9 DZ.



Dear,

Thanks for showing interest in the apartment,yes i do have an apartment in Madrid.And you have been conversing with my step daughter.

I have attached my lease agreement for you to review and possibly fill in your details.

A deposit is needed to guarantee and book your reservation.



I await your response.



Yours Faithfully,

Barrister Thomas Cook Esq

0044 702 402 8809

What do you guys think?

Welcome to Scamwarners Caydn. This is a definite scam for the following reasons.

1 ) The telephone number is a UK redirect service to any cellphone worldwide - and much favoured by scammers.

2 ) There is no evidence that THOMAS COOK CHAMBERS/THOMAS COOK ASSOCIATES exists.

No listing here - http://www.londononline.co.uk/area/Abbey_Wood_Road_SE2/

3 ) A legitimate legal professional would not use a free mail address - live.com

If you have any questions or concerns please post and a support team member will help you.

Your online safety is also important - would you please edit the name from the final posted mail.

Thank you very much for your quick reply, I appreciate it.

The points you present seem to be very solid points indeed so we will just keep looking for something else. This is the 4th scammer we had to deal with in 2 days.

Hi Caydn and welcome to Scamwarners.
As Kate said it's a scam.
Other points are the variable quality of the English. The good bits look copied out of an online travel guide, but when he's answering your questions, it's poor. The lack of spacing round punctuation marks looks West African.

Hi Arnold,

Thank you for your input.

I'm very glad to see people and sites like this around, you guy's make the web a safer place - or at least you try and that's what matters.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone legit would contact us about an appartment but right now we are way too sceptic.

Thanks again,
Caydn

The minute you see an e-mail addie like

[email protected]

all credibilty flies out of the window, but don't tell them that.

It's a strange obsession that 419 scammers from West Africa have that if they involve a barrister, it must be a bona fide transaction. As a London barrister would charge something like £500 - £1,000 and hour, it's very unlikely he'd have any involvement or interest in renting out a flat at that price.

He also wouldn't use his work mail address for private business, though for work he'd be able to afford his own domain.

I regret that scammers infest the internet at all levels, and you need to have your wits about you, expecially when you are offered a deal that seems to good to be true.

Agreed, at first glance the @live.com is a giveaway and as soon as someone mentioned the word "barrister" then that is the final red flag.

For some reason African scammers think including the word "barrister" automatically adds credibility to their scam, when in reality, for anyone remotely in the know, the opposite it true.

They'll probably ask you to send the "deposit" through Western Union or something like that...

Avoid.

Hey I put this as a post, but wanted to make sure Caydn defs saw it:

I believe I have been scammed by the same person as Caydn ("Scam or not? Sick of this").

I advertised for a room on craigslist.de in Berlin, and recieved an email from a Dwight Diefenbaker.
We exchanged several emails, where he 'answered' questions about the place...it was a miracle really - exactly what i wanted, where i wanted it for the right price. It even came with two 'good girls' for flatmates...Jessica Toney and a Svetlana...one from Germany, one from Holland...just as in Caydn's posts...
Unfortunately, because i had little time, little money and couldn't get to Berlin to see the place, I had to trust this stranger, and stupidly agreed to wire him the money...€360 all gone. Not a lot of money to some people, but I earn next to nothing, and that was everything I had.

I had an inkling of suspicion just after i'd transfered the first half of the 'deposit' (i have so little i had to do it over two months) - when i had asked him for the third time for the precise address and he neglected to tell me...then i started asking other questions...all of them he half answered - enough that i felt at ease, but not really telling the whole story...but being busy and worrying about other things, time passed, and it was time for the second half, and i transferred it, feeling confident i was doing the right thing.

Of course i wasn't. After i transfered the second lot, I got an email from him saying he had to 'fix things' and could i transfer another month's rent...I said no of course, and straight away emailed Jessica Toney asking her some things, and her response was weird...it basically sounded like Dwight - they used the same words. Now i was sure something was wrong. I started pressing him, asking him questions, wanting the name of the building manager, the PRECISE address, his telephone number...

Nothing.

...of course the money is gone and I haven't got a word back from him. We called the number (0044 702 402 8809) but it was a strange deal and the guy knew of me, but wouldnt tell us anything like the address or where he was from, or where we were calling...

He called himself "Dwight Diefenbaker"

His lawyer called himself "Gary James Grubbs" - yes dodgiest name on the planet, but that is where the money went to, so there must be someone out there called this for him to collect the money.

The lawyer's address was 30 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 1RX,UK

I've been a complete fool to fall for this, and all my money is gone. I'm in a foreign country feeling betrayed and stupid. I just want to warn other people so it doesn't happen to them too!!

fedup,

I'm sorry to hear you were scammed. Unfortunately you were right in thinking that the money is gone forever.
This is a fairly common scam format--it may be the same scammer or another using a copied script, but the approach is nearly always the same.

If you can post the headers from the scammer's emails, we may be able to identify the general location of the scammer. Posting all emails and phone numbers used in this scam (including any given for the attorney or roommates, as these are all scam too) will help others to avoid falling victim.

We called the number (0044 702 402 8809)

Numbers starting with 44-70 are redirect numbers. These numbers are used by scammers who want to appear to be in UK when they are not. In reality your scammer is most likely in Africa (or is an African student in Malaysia), and the phone call was simply redirected to his cell phone there.

His lawyer called himself "Gary James Grubbs" - yes dodgiest name on the planet, but that is where the money went to, so there must be someone out there called this for him to collect the money.

Not necessarily. It is possible to get money without identification. If you were robbed in a foreign country, and your identification was stolen along with your money, you would not be able to show ID to pick up money. Western Union has a provision to allow people to pick up money in these circumstances, and scammers are very quick to take advantage of it. In addition, while there are pleny of upstanding WU employees out there, we know that there are corrupt employees who will work with scammers, allowing them to pick up money sent to another country, or allowing them to pick up money with a really bad fake ID, in exchange for a payoff.