TNT Scammer for Baiting

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 07 Oct 2012 Posts: 3

Hi Guys,

I was refered here from scamwarners to provide information on a scammer I discovered. It is a TNT express rental scam and the scammer is targeting individuals in South Africa. I am not willing to bait the individual myself as he has my real name. The details for the scam are as follows.

A listing has been made on a local property website, that is too good to be true, see below:

http://www.privateproperty.co.za/morningside-rr561328.htm

I have reported it to the website but it has yet to be taken down. The "owner" claims to not be in the country and for you to be able to view the flat he will send you the keys at his own cost. However he will be doing this through a fantasy service offered by TNT. Whereby you pay TNT a holding fee until you decide whether to take or leave the apartment. The money is either given back if you from TNTs holding account or given to the 'owner'.

It appears that this scammer has already been succesful at least two times as these posts at scamwarners suggest:

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35294
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=44167&p=121821&hilit=tnt+express

The story in the second post is near identical to the information I was given, before I became wise and dropped the scammer. As I mentioned I wont be taking this further myself as I am unwilling to put myself at risk.

Thanks for any assistance in annoying this guy! Happy hunting!

RabidEeyore

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2012 11:27 pm

Welcome to Eater! Could you post some of the correspondence between you and the lad, including his email address (but not yours)? This will help baiters start the bait even if the listing gets taken down.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 07 Oct 2012 Posts: 3

No need to quote the entire post directly above. We use this ^^^ instead. BTW, welcome to Eater- Connie

Sure, although I will leave out any information pertaining to myself. Which essentially just means ill leave out my own responses, but will contextualise what my responses contained.

Ok so I initially posted a message to the owner of the property through the website www.privateproperty.co.za. The exact details of that message I have forgotten and do not have access to as they go through the websites system. But I essentially just expressed interested. I recieved this message about an hour later from a one Sebastian Morgan.

Quote:

From: Sebastian Morgan ([email protected])
Sent: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 04:21:27 -0700 (PDT)

Hello,

I just read your message regarding my apartment.
Sorry if my answer comes quite late, but your email arrived in my spam folder, and I couldn't see it until now.
I bought this apartment for my daughter during her studies in South Africa, but now she's back home permanently, so I'm renting the place for unlimited time.
The flat is fully furnished and renovated, exactly like in the photos.
You can use my furniture, or you can also use your own if you prefer. If you decide to use yours, you will have access to a large and well ventilated cellar, where you can store my furniture.
Also, very important, the utilities (cold/hot water, electricity, wireless broadband Internet, digital TV, 2 parking spots in garage, air conditioning, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.) are included in the price of R 5,000/month. The deposit is also R 5,000, and you get it back, when you decide to leave the apartment (you will have to give me at least 30 days notice). As for me, you can rest assured that I will never ask you to leave the apartment.
Before we go any further I would like to know how many persons you intend to share the flat with, and for how long.
Now, a little bit about myself: My name is Sebastian Morgan and I'm a 62 years old graphic designer from London, planning to retire in the next 2 years.
I have a lovely wife, Christine and my daughter, Linda. I am very proud to say that soon I'm going to be a grandfather Smile

.
Another member of our family is a six year old Labrador Retriever which we all love, so, since I'm a pet owner myself, I will have no problem if you want to keep a pet in the house.
The only inconvenience is that my job doesn't allow me to leave London even for one single day. We just hired some new staff and I'm in charge of their training, so my schedule is pretty hectic right now.
But this won't affect the rental at all. I can make arrangements to rent the apartment from London (on my expense of course).

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

All the best from Britain!

I was immediately suspicious, but still interested, as it was such an insane offer. So I responded saying I was interested and just gave a short blerb about myself. Giving my profession and name. Although he at this point already had my name from the www.privateproperty.co.za website, which is considered a very reputable website. He very quickly responded with the following:

Quote:

From: Sebastian Morgan ([email protected])
Sent: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 05:38:29 -0700 (PDT)

Hello ,

Thanks for your reply,
Like I have inform you before, the price you shall pay for 1 month of rent will be R 5,000 and i want aslo one month guarantee deposit R 5,000 ( the guarantee deposit R 5,000 you will receive back when you leave the apartment ), with no extra taxes to pay. The money, I want to revive it monthly to my bank account, so I hope it will be no problem for you to wire the money .

Of course you will have to see the apartment before discussing further details . I am willing to send you the keys so you can visit it and see it suits your needs.The delivery for the keys and viewing permit (signed by me), will be made with TNT to make sure that we can trust each other.
I will explain the procedure if you are interested so please email me as soon as you read this message because I really need to take care of this matter.

Regards
Sebastian Morgan

My warning bells started to go off at this point. As the English in the email was quite poor for a ported English gentleman. However, after speaking to some family they believed it could be a valid offer. However I tried to Google this Sebastian Morgan, and found nothing so I was growing even more suspicious. But I replied to his mail and asked about the TNT process for receiving the keys, his response was,

Quote:

From: Sebastian Morgan ([email protected])
Sent: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 07:17:17 -0700 (PDT)

Hello ,

First of all , I want to tell you that if you are ready to proceed with this transaction I will need to inform you the steps about how this service works
You will have 2 days to inspect the apartment before your final decision to rent . I will pay the shipping costs.

This is how they work :

1) I will make the delivery papers at TNT . After that I will send you a copy of my passport .

2) After I will make the papers for delivery they will require for your payment confirmation of the first month and the guarantee deposit(R 5,000 + R 5,000= R 10,000) to the company .TNT will send you a delivery notification to let you know they have the Keys and the papers in their custody .
Also TNT will give you further instructions about the money deposit .

3) After the payment is confirmed the delivery process will start and when you will receive the keys, you will have 2 days inspection period before your final decision to rent .

4) If all is in order, you will instruct TNT to give me the money. Further rents will be sent directly to my bank account.

5) If you refuse to rent the apt , TNT will give you a full refund (R 10,000) and you will give them back the keys and the contract.

If you are interested to rent the apt please send me your information, so i can make the deal:

Name:..................
Address: ...............
City: .....................
Postal Code: ...............
Country: ...................
Phone number:...............

Thanks
Sebastian Morgan

I was now very concerned so I started looking for this service offered by TNT at which point I stumbled across www.scamwarners.com. I have now dropped this lad, by not replying to this last mail. I have also reported his listing on the property website. If their is any recommendations anyone has, or additional information they require I will happily help.

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:14 pm

It appears that the Listing on the Private Property website has been removed.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 07 Oct 2012 Posts: 3

The Monsignor wrote:

It appears that the Listing on the Private Property website has been removed.

I noticed that as well. I was concerned they would leave it long enough for someone to be caught by the scammer. Im not sure if the email is still active though, as I have not emailed the lad since he presented me with the TNT service.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 4

Hello all, i am new here and lucky i stumbled on this website. i was almost caught by this idiot sabastian morgan with his TNT scam! Alarm bells went of and i also started searching for him online and found this post. thank you guys, wish there is something we could do to this fool

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 4

i saw this ad on the 17 november, so privateproperty has not taken it down untill the 19th and i have also mailed them but no reply yet

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 4

email from sebastian morgan...the low life

From: Sebastian Morgan ([email protected])
Date: 2012-11-15 4:50:07 PM
To: Subject: RE: Private Property Listing Enquiry: Your Property morningside, 12 Bevan Rd Ref RR574384

Hello,

I just read your message regarding my apartment.
I bought this apartment for my daughter during her studies in South Africa, but now she's back home permanently, so I'm renting the place for unlimited time.
The flat is fully furnished and renovated, exactly like in the photos.
You can use my furniture, or you can also use your own if you prefer. If you decide to use yours, you will have access to a large and well ventilated cellar, where you can store my furniture.
Also, very important, the utilities (cold/hot water, electricity, wireless broadband Internet, digital TV, 2 parking spots in garage, air conditioning, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.) are included in the price of R 5,000/month. The deposit is also R 5,000, and you get it back, when you decide to leave the apartment (you will have to give me at least 30 days notice). As for me, you can rest assured that I will never ask you to leave the apartment.
Before we go any further I would like to know how many persons you intend to share the flat with, and for how long.
Now, a little bit about myself: My name is Sebastian Morgan and I'm a 60 years old graphic designer from London, planning to retire in the next 2 years.
I have a lovely wife, Christine and my daughter, Linda. I am very proud to say that soon I'm going to be a grandfather Smile

.
Another member of our family is a six year old Labrador Retriever which we all love, so, since I'm a pet owner myself, I will have no problem if you want to keep a pet in the house.
The only inconvenience is that my job doesn't allow me to leave London even for one single day. We just hired some new staff and I'm in charge of their training, so my schedule is pretty hectic right now.
But this won't affect the rental at all. I can make arrangements to rent the apartment from London (on my expense of course).

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

All the best from Britain!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 4

wrekage he is still active and using his email address [email protected]

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 9:22 pm

Hello fedupuser and welcome to 419Eater. It would be better for you to incorporate the above 4 Posts into one single Post and one by one, delete each of the bottom 3.