Rental scam baiting - any success?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 5

Hi guys, I would like to ask whether someone hoodwinked some rental scammers. In the summer I "rent" a flat as well as some friends of mine and we fell for a rental scam.
It would be great to know if someone managed to bait several scammers Smile

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 7:53 pm

Hi there Kilik, welcome to eater.

First of all I'm sorry to hear you were scammed. I hope the losses weren't too big Sad

. Was there a site involved? If so, we can get it offline.

I've dealt with quite some rental lads (I think I closed down 30ish rental sites the last half year) and in my experience they're quite hard to let them do what you want. They have many potential targets to choose from, so if one of them gives them problems they'll just move on to the next victim. You *might* get them interested when ASEMing them with something totally unrelated which has an enormous payout, or they won't bite. It might be interesting to hear spot and Fowan Nyne, as I know they deal(t) with lots of rental lads aswell.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 5

Wow, thanks for reply, I am glad that there are some good guys fighting against scammers. Unfortunately, the scam was a reply to an add on Gumtree by a friend of mine. Normally I would be concerned if I got an unsolicited email, but this was only one of many offers coming as an answer. Therefore, there is no website that could be closed.
Interestingly, this scam was quite well organized - I sent money to a UK account, no stupid WU transfer that would immediately arouse my suspicion.
I did my own piece of fight but posting a blog about the scam that made using a stolen ID impossible - by typing Carol Wallace everybody should be pointed out to an anti scam website leading to my blog. But still, those assholes have my identity and I did not really harm them - they can set up as many webmail account as they want.
Yeah, I lost a quite big amount of money, but I hope I will be able to pay off my debts soon. Well, bad luck. It is ironic that I have always helped others not to get scammed and in the end it was me who got scammed. I will definitely try some scambaiting after finishing my exams.

I could not find a search button for this forum, so I posted a message whether somebody dealt with rental scammers. I am looking forward to seeing next responses Smile

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:20 pm

Kilik wrote:

I could not find a search button for this forum,

Click on "Search" to the right of the 419Eater logo at the top of the page.
There's a lot about rental scams at our sister site at http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=39

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:40 pm

Carol Wallace, you say? [email protected] or something similar, by any chance? Or [email protected]? That's no stranger with us.

What you describe is correct though, these scams don't rely on sending mails. They just place ads on craigslist, gumtree, etc. Many people fall victim of these scams

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 5

@Mr Tambourine Man
OMG, and I searched for the search buttom in the forum interface - no wonder I could not find it - thanks Wink

@Caligula: yes, baroness.wallace - that is her/ him Smile

I am curious when they start using my name for similar frauds, since they have a copy of my passport :/
At the time I was investigating her/ her "lawyer" everything seemed to be fine. There was no mention of her on internet. Now people can simply put an email address or a name and see the results on antiscam website. but that was not my case. A very tricky move was that she gave me her lawyer email and phone number, who indeed, is a registered lawayer, but as he later replied, had nothing to do with her. I found it out too late.
Guys, do you think that there is any chance in legal proceeding in the UK? The police has the identity of the person whom I sent the money, but they act monumentaly slow. Could that person be an accomplice, or only another poor vicitm who re-sent the money via Western Union to Nigeria?
If you were insterested in detail what happened to me, here is the whole case:

Code:

http://rentalscamdetails.blogspot.com/

@Caligula - she did send us an email as an answer to a flat wanted add on gumtree. Interestingly, there were pretty few red flags in her emails and not as many English errors as I usually see in Nigerian scams.
I am especially pissed off that he used my friends against me which pretty stressed me out and resulted in my hasty actions.

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:16 pm

I skimmed your blog very loosely - I'll read it more thoroughly later tonight. There are 2 things I'd like to ask though. In your Chapter 2 you post the identity card used by the scammer and a form/document. Even though the images are small, could you label them with 'Used by scammer' writing on top of it (ms paint is just fine) so it can't get reused by other scammers.

And the other - could you send me the mail where you received the bank account, along with the headers? We have a contact here that closes down bank accounts. You can just PM it to me. If you are unsure what headers are just ask and we'll guide you through the process Smile

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 5

Wow guys, I really admire your involvement - it has been two months since British police started invastigating this, but except for drawing up an official scam statement they did not do anything to solve the case.

thanks for remark, I will immediately label the passport picture.

@Caligula - I have sent you a PM with all details you requested Wink

Wow, sounds like you have pretty good connectins Smile

I desparately tried to inform the bank that there is a scammer abusing their account, but they did not care at all. I understand that due to security measures they cannot take any actions while having a cold call as the only evidence, but they could have done something about it.
Lol, I remember, how desparetely I tried to get some help - I wrote to both embassies, informed Microsoft about abuse their webmail, went to Interpol and so on - no replies at all, so you can imagine how really happy I am when I see that somebody volunteers to shed light up on this case

Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:20 am

Yeah, we've got this really mysterious guy named "Alan" who seems to be very very good at making bank accounts vanish.

Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:55 am

^^^ Some say he's the Stig!

Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:14 am

Which, admittedly, doesn't really help us with the whole identity thing.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Nov 2010 Posts: 5

Lol, nobody would be so nuts to divulge his/ her true identity while being involved in nuking bank accounts. Anyway, whoever he is, he/ she makes a great contribution to fighting against crime.
And in fact, everyone here - scambiting must take pretty much time and many people would not really care much. Therefore it is great that there is a community like that on internet.
Lol, today I have got a funny scam translated by google translator. Nobody would be so stupid to write back - what is the perspose of that? Just to check valid addresses?

Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:20 pm

Well, most of the questions are already answered here but there is no harm in baiting a rental lad.
They move so fast on their victims that if you looked like you were going to pay, your lad would have to ignore someone in order to concentrate on you.

They don't play for long though...

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Jun 2012 Posts: 1

I'm amazed to see this thred from 2010. I was about to be fooled by the same scammer. It is incredible that they use exactly the same documents and even pictures, just changing some minor details. I was very lucky because I know a lawyer who saw it and found the whole thing dodgy. They use the names of real solicitors... It wasn't easy t find this, though. Her name was not enough, you need to add "scam". I was lucky this time. Now the email they use is: [email protected]

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:42 pm

When a thread is over a couple months old, we usually don't post in them any more, or necro the thread. So you found it because it had not been "locked"

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:44 pm

MLF is right. if you want to open a new thread on this subject please do so and link back to the original thread if necessary.

Locking

Rental scam baiting - any success?	View next topic View previous topic