Total newbie-looking for reference

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jul 2015 Posts: 2

So I've looking for a new apartment and found an online scam that's probably shown on up on your radar and I'd love to know more. I stumbled upon this hobby out of personal frustration with this search and the people who set these stupid loops up deserve to have every second of their time wasted because of the good works of all of you.

But enough ass-kissing...this scam looks pretty standard: cheap apartment in great neighborhood up on Craigslist, follow up e-mail reads like a first grade essay:

Quote:

Thanks for your email, I personally own the house, I want my property to be well taken good care of, and there are some rules and regulation in which I do give out to tenant willing to rent my house so please don't disrespect my order But if you are still capable of renting my house the rules and regulation goes this way,You must keep my house clean including the surrounding, you must know the way in which you use the stove so as to avoid fire outbreak,you must not disturb the neighbor.

Before now its been an issue putting out our home for rent due to the bond we have developed with the house,Listening to advises from friends and since there are no family member around to take care of the house we decided to do this.Firstly i will like to share with you about my little family, I am a site project manager and my wife has a private practice as an attorney, i am a native of (Seattle WA). Actually I did reside in the house with my family and presently we have moved out due to my official job transfer in (Michigan MI) , as a site project manager with Hattiesburg Construction Company. I wanted to sell the house but my wife suggest i rent it out to whoever that is ready to occupy it, Right now am no longer selling it but I need to make sure you will take very good care of the house before renting it to you.

Our house is intact with all amenities intact and working in perfect conditions, I would like to emphasize that you will find our home enjoyable and you will definitely feel at home,Also the neighborhood is quite at peace and welcoming.We have a cordial relationship with the neighborhood as it is a neighborhood where everyone keep to themselves go about their business without interference from anybody and we expect that as you move in.Please keep to yourselves as this Our (home) that will become yours will provide all the warmth and joy that you require.

Attn : The rent are including the Utilities are intact such as:
Dishwasher
Dryer
Electric Stove
Fridge
Washer
Air Condition
Sewage
Trash

All included in the monthly rent,as i am in a governmental programmer that sponsors my utilities on monthly basis etc. Please note that, we are a kind and honest family,that spent a lot on property that is available for rent, so in one accord,we are soliciting for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own.We want you to keep it tidy all the time so that we shall be glad to see it whenever we are around on a visit.

House Address: (4322 SW XXXXXX)

PROPERTY DESCRIPTION...........

Number of Bedrooms:2
Number of baths:2
Pets are welcome!!!
Rent:$700
Refundable security Deposit:$700
Total move in: $1,400

we will appreciate if you could take your time to fill out the Rent/Lease application form below as we would like to keep proper documentation.

****RENT APPLICATION DETAILS****
Please if you are ready now to occupy the house kindly provide the information below for record purpose:
PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF

Full Name ......................................

Home Phone .................. Cell Phone .................

Date of Birth ...........................

Current Address ........................................

City ....................... State ....................... Zip........

Are you married ...........................

How many people will be living in the house? .......................

Do you have a pet? ..............

Do you have a car? ..............

Occupation? ....................................

When can you pay for your deposit to secure or move in? .....................

How soon do you want to receive the keys? ...............................

Move In Date .............................

Your Family Pictures .........................

You will only be able to drive by the house for now but you will not have access into the house until we have sent the keys and documents of the house to you.

Please note that your rent starts counting from move in date so you need not to worry about making the deposit payment now and not moving in immediately because all you're doing is securing the house in your favor in order not to loose it to other interested applicants.

Call or text me(Snipped)

Thanks and God bless you.
Karen Timothy.

I tried to argue with these folks in the hopes they would show me one of these apartments to no avail, They've since stopped replying to me e-mails (good). Anyway, I was just wondering what you all knew about these folks and if there was a great way to start baiting these guys and wasting their time just as they've wasted mine.

If this is in the wrong forum, I sincerely apologize, still new to the game. Thanks!

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:43 am

First things first: welcome to Eater!

Second, as i am sure everyone else will be asking you, are you baiting safely? (i.e. from an anonymous email address and without giving them any of your personal information?). If not, stop immediately and do not respond to any further emails.

Next -- are you entirely sure that this is a scam and not just a bad seller? Most scammers are going to ask for money in advance of something and I don't see where this person was asking for money, unless they were going to request the deposit and rent before you signed a lease or moved in.

If you want to start baiting, though, you're certainly in the right place! Read a few of our stickies, browse through Eater U, sign up for a mentor, grab a few scam emails from Surplus, and have fun!

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 1:53 am

^^^This.

I have removed the telephone number. Can you please post the initial email with headers to tie it to a scam? As TLH said, we haven't seen the actual "scam" part in that email.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 2:40 am

It is quite obviously the writing of a West African, not a native of (Seattle WA), not a first grader, and only a scammer with a format with blanks to fill would write the city in bananas like that. It is a scam. Please post it in Scamwarners with complete headers.

If you are talking with this scammer using your real-life email address or phone number, DROP HIM. Give him no clue what went wrong. If you'd like to bait him, then create an email address for your baiting character, who has no connection to your real-life self. Then answer the scammer as if he had sent his original script to your baiting character.

As you've already gotten some responses from the scammer, post them on SW too. They are probably script, just like the initial script. You don't have to post your email to the scammer.

Welcome to Eater!

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:04 am

Hi Brewthebeeryoudrink, welcome to the club! I'm also relatively new here. Like vonpaso xlura mentioned, there's a great website you could visit that's called ScamWarners... maybe you'll find your dude listed here as a rental scammer already, or you can add him in, or inquire about him if you're not 100 % certain whether he's really a scammer or not (but it sounds very, very likely that he is). If you are convinced that your dude is indeed a scammer, then you could put this lad's opening letter with the headers in the "Surplus 419 Scam Letters" thread so that some of us on here can send your lad a bit of warm fuzzy love. Twisted Evil

(Just make sure to read all the details about how to post in the Surplus section first).

But, I must admit that the fact that he doesn't want to show you the house when it is supposed to be empty ("you will only be able to drive by the house for now") and the strange wording of the email are definitely huge red flags. They probably also can't meet you in person too, haha.

"please note that, we are a kind and honest family"... Really? The opposite would have surprised me.
"you must know the way in which you use the stove so as to avoid fire outbreak"... Come on! I'm a kid and I've never used a stove before, especially an electric one.
Has a job "as a site project manager"... can barely write proper English sentences and has such an impressive job?

But the best part is when they include "trash" and "sewage" as utilities.... no joke Laughing

Then, there's some weird, weird questions in their bogus rent application form, one in particular: "Your Family Pictures"... what the???
And, in my humble opinion, they actually are asking for money in advance via a "refundable" security deposit which is normally totally legit to ask for, but here again, I see some red flags in how they describe it in their bogus rent application form: "When can you pay for your deposit to secure or move in?" They should already know the answer to that question. The wording of the question also makes it clear that they have no clue what a security deposit is for...

Then, there's the confusing sentence that wants to be reassuring at the end that mentions not to worry about moving in now and making the deposit payment because "all you're doing is securing the house in your favour in order not to loose it..." and in the sentence just before: "you will not have access into the house until we have sent the keys and documents of the house to you."

And frankly, I don't know a lot of people named Karen who have a wife, but I do know a lot of 419ers who finish their emails with some random "God bless you". Hmm... Laughing

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:34 am

And if you google a part of the email, eg

Quote:

Our house is intact with all amenities intact and working in perfect conditions, I would like to emphasize that you will find our home enjoyable and you will definitely feel at home,Also the neighborhood is quite at peace and welcoming.We have a cordial relationship with the neighborhood as it is a neighborhood where everyone keep to themselves go about their business without interference from anybody and we expect that as you move in.

you will see that variations of this whole email have been used over and over as a scam. You can see one example on ScamWarners, here:

https://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=41660&p=101720

It is definitely a scam. The writer of the email does not own the apartment, and just wants to trick people into sending the rent and deposit to him.

Yes, they can certainly be baited. Here is a summary:

A Typical Apartment Rental Lad

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:07 pm

Welcome to eater. And good job recognizing that this is a scam.

If you want to waste scammers time, all the information you require is located here. Read the basics, utilize the search function, and ask for help. And if you want to polish your skills then I suggest signing up for a mentor.

Scambaiting is limited only by your time. There are a ton of ways to scam people and there are more ways to bait scammers. See if any one appeals to you and have at it. Start slow with a straight bait and have fun.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:16 pm

As Branwen and VX said, there's no doubt about the scam part. Those of us who spend more time at scamwarners probably see a dozen of these a day (many courtesy of our very own Spot, who is very active on the rental scam/fake escrow front.)

The writing is African, of course, and I could point out even more of the scammer's mistakes that show he is not from the US, but this line is evidence on its own:

Quote:

You will only be able to drive by the house for now but you will not have access into the house until we have sent the keys and documents of the house to you.

He's setting up for a fake escrow scam, where he tells the victim to send the money to a (fake) third party who will hold it, and then the keys and "documents" will be sent by mail or shipper.

No legitimate property owner moves thousands of miles away from his beloved home with the only keys in his possession, then turns around and sends them to some random individual based on a few emails. This scenario only exists in the world of scammers.

A real homeowner is going to have a realtor or some other agent, or will have a friend, family member, or neighbor who can walk prospective tenants through--or he/she will return to handle things themselves.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jul 2015 Posts: 2

I'm pretty convinced it's a scam. I got similar replies back from two other "companies", one of them via text message. I have been careful not to give them any detailed information and to avoid filling out and of their "applications".

Looks like I might be looking for a mentor within short order....

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:36 pm

It is 100% a scam.

No one I know that rents a house or apartment has a "form" like that in initial email. "Your family pictures"?

Also if the person is an native of Seattle, then She went to British English classes.

I would disengage all contact with anything personal.. and start fresh in a new baiter email.. if you still want to play with this guy.

If you need a mentor, I am all game in taking you on. Feel free to PM me.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 10:50 pm

It's not British English. It's African English. The writer did not grow up in any country where most people's native language is English, and there are telltale marks of African English, which I won't explain, as this forum is viewable by anyone, including scammers.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 10:56 pm

Definitely not a British person:

lad wrote:

neighbor

Trust me, we wouldn't make such a terrible and horrifically blatant spelling mistake.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:07 pm

^^^
Hahaha Father Moleman, but the lad is suppose to be an American.

More things to scandalize/scandalise you:

UK: colour, honour, favourite, neighbour, centre, theatre ...
US: color, honor, favorite, neighbor, center, theater ....

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:28 pm

^ u dey b killed by motorbike ogun gunna get u an ur entire generation am sure oooooo Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:27 am

You say tomato, I say tomato,
You say potato, I say GOD GO PURNISH YOU

Welcome, new recruits. Lots of clues in the writing that it's a scam. See how many you can find.

Incidentally, he probably asks for your family pictures as a convincer; he wants you to think that he cares about you being a wholesome family oriented person. That aside, he will recycle them and impersonate your family in his next round of scams. They're nasty folks really.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 1:46 am

Father Moleman wrote:

^ u dey b killed by motorbike ogun gunna get u an ur entire generation am sure oooooo Evil or Very Mad

AAAAH!!!!! noooooo!!! :yikes:

Pity please Father bow_down

OP's lad wrote:

Listening to advises from friends

Now, I don't reckon that being either UK or, Father M forbids, US English.

Brewthebeeryoudrink, let us know if you decide to put your lad's email on Surplus, so we can have fun with him too!

Elite Baiter Joined: 10 Mar 2013 Posts: 1486

This is one reason why i sometimes ask opinnion from others. I'm not native english speaker so i'm amazed how much you can tell about this lad just from his writing!

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