This sounds like a Scam?

I have been contacted by a Teresa Lartuna with regard to renting holiday accommodation. I was suspicious because of the insistence on paying by check instead of PayPal and because she kept on asking me for my address and phone number but would not divulge her own.
A search engine revealed the same name and email address associated with a different type of scam - au pairs - as reported through Scam.warners.com
I am interested to know how to deal with this and whether it should be reported?

Could you post the emails? It's easier for us to tell if we have the exact wording. Include the headers.

The scammer being on viewtopic.php?f=42&t=30052
And teresa is very naughty indeed being previously involved in a translatation scam from April 2012.
The old paying by cheque means the scammer pays by false bank cheques, or sends an overpayment cheque to you but tells you to urgently send the rest of the money by western union to a 'company' or an individual. When the check has been paid out to you and you sent the money through western union, you've lost your own money...
The bank will not discover the fraudulent cheque until weeks later, by then it's too late for you.

Thanks to you vonpaso xlura and jolly roger

Here is the correspondence. The first message from her was sent to my website administrator who sent on the following message:
Name: teresa
Tel: 748 859 8484
Email: [email protected]
No. of adults: 2
No. of children: 0
Came from: Other
Your message: Hello

Let me know if your apartment is still available for rent. If yes, let me know the price and condition. get back to me, Thank you.
Teresa.

I replied:
To: [email protected]
Date: Thursday, 25 October, 2012, 21:50

Hi Teresa,
Thanks very much for your enquiry for our holiday cottage in Galicia. To help us answer you more fully, would you please give us some idea of the dates that you are interested in staying. We can then get back with a confirmation of availability and a price.
Looking forward to hearing from you,

which solicited the following response:

Hello

I appreciate your response so much and i am happy to hear from you..am happy apartment is available for that time, my dad is ready to take care of the Bill.

So regarding the Payment,my dad will send you a pay check for the booking. as soon as i have the listed details from you :

Kindly furnish me with the details below;

Name On Check:

address:

Telephone/Mobile:

Total Amount:

Arrival Date : 03/01/2013 i will stay for a week let me know the price

So that payment can be issue and dispatch to your postal address without any further delay,

Thanks

Teresa.

My reply gave her the price and confirmed a provisional booking but I was unhappy with matters at this stage so did not divulge address or phone. She kept on referring to our cottage as an apartment which was strange to say the least. She answered:

Hi
Thanks for your reply am okay with the price,but my dad can only make the payment by check.
Regards
Teresa

At this stage I decided to stall her while trying to investigate so sent her the following:

Good morning Teresa,
I should have the revised paperwork for cheque payments soon. Prior to sending this to you, we do require your full name and address to hold the reservation for you until the actual booking form and cheque are returned to us.
Regards

Her last message was abrupt with no greetings and totally ignored my request for her details:

I need the details to send the check to
Your name
Address
Phone

By now I had had enough and that was when I discovered through this website that she was unlikely to be genuine . She would not have had the booking as who would want a tenant who gave so much bother before even arriving??!!

I got exactly the same email and repsonses - 2 adults, dad is ready to pay the bill by cheque etc. The thing that these spams seem to have in common is their somewhat dubious English and it's never a 'strightforward' transaction- I had a similar type deal when I was selling a my car on Autotrader, but the owner could only collect it by car transporter and didn't want to see it before buying. Hmmm.

Anyway, thanks for putting this up here, although I did have my suspicions , it's great to be able to confirm there is a problem and to not send out details or get sucked in.