My personal Craigslist scammer lad

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6

I had posted this in the misc thread, but I have got confirmation this little lad is set up in Nigeria.

My family is selling our home we've recently had it uploaded to the MLS listings. The laddy decided to take the photos and description from the MLS listing and list our house for rent on Craigslist. BIG MISTAKE.

I want to make him pay, hard. I did a little scambaiting a few years ago, but never got into it full force - but now, I have the motivation I need.

Here's the letter I got after showing interest in the house for "rent." This must be a newbie or uneducated lad, because the english is poor and the letter itself is downright hilarious.

Quote:

Hello,

I can see you are interested in renting the house I have pasted, I am currently in West Africa where I work as a volunteer with St Peters catholic mission, So I need a tenant to take care of it but since I am out of the state now, I have received some proposals regarding the rent because it is located in a very good area. It is located at 1302 Fleetwood Drive, Murray KY 42071. I spent less time in the States so I could not get a hold on any Realtor to handle this rent issue, although it was when I knew how long we are going to stay in Africa that I decided to rent out the house.... However, the initial plan was to sale out the house. which I tried, but sometimes the agents inflates the price and it takes longer to sell i am telling you this incase if you find the house on another website. I left behind some Facilities and electronics which include the rent, and a DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, a refrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven, microwave,dishwasher and washing machine, My Computer Connected with Internet Access Also the keys to the House are right here with me, and the house documents. Which I can send to you after all necessary agreement has be accepted. Also I will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue ,but your absolute maintenance of my House is most important thing so will want you to get back to me with the Application form below.

RENTAL APPLICATION
1)Your Full Name__________________________
2)Your Full Address & Phone Number_______________________
3)How old are you_______________________
4)Are you married_______________________
5)How many people will be living in the house_______________________
6)Do you have children_____Ages_____
7)Do you have a car_______________________
8)Do you have a pet_____
9)Occupation_______________________
10)Monthly income_______________________
11)When will you like to move in_______________________
12)How long will you like to rent the property_______________________
13)Reason for relocating_______________________

One Mr Wanda Cabak called me in regards to the house, I told him that I can't give him the House for rent because he loves smoking,drinking and i don't want him to get drunked one day and damaged my property, so If you are still interested Note that the rent is going to be $1000 Per month No extra fees.. Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you. Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the keys of the house to you.

Thanks
Stay Blessed,
Kenneth Asher.

Any suggestions would be nice, I'm not sure how I want to start this off, but I want this to reach "EPIC" status - anyone wanna join up?

I've been thinking about using the World Cup (and me being a soccer fan, might just take a lil trip to Africa [my alias, that is] and see what kind of response that elicits). ??

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 9:39 pm

Dealt with one of these guys some time back. The scam is quite rampant on craigslist in various cities. It's a somewhat difficult modality to arrange a safari, but then again, some people are quite good at it. You could definitely waste a lot of his time, but I found the lad I talked with focused on getting my "security deposit" and when I gave him grief over the transaction he seemed to lose interest in me. They are also in an interesting position, because, for example, the lad I spoke with was pretending to be a white homeowner doing mission work in South Africa. This clearly limited his ability to send pictures to prove his identity.

I'm assuming you wrote craigslist to take the posting down so other aren't scammed by this? Although unfortunately they'll just repost with another house.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 94

Quote:

i don't want him to get drunked one day and damaged my property

Welcome to 419eater Basher! I hope that this guy doesn't have your real contact information. IF he does you should drop him. you want to make sure to bait safe because some of these Lads are extremely dangerous.

That being said, I HATE craigslist Lads and you can feel free to PM me if there's anything I can do.

Give em hell!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6

(Mod edit -- no need to post a full requote of the post just above this one ^^^^^. - JF)

They have my father's name (created an email addres with his name) and obviously location.

I used a fake name/e-mail to show interest, at this point, I don't believe the lad would know it was anyone from my family scambaiting him.

I've let craigslist know about the scam listing.

Thanks!

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 94

Hmmm... Doesn't exactly sound like a textbook example of safe baiting, be careful with this one.

As far as where to go with this, I'd suggest getting him to do some work (send pics, fill forms etc.) You'll want to talk small talk with him to. Tell him all about your big fat cat and how you like to collect pebbles and such.
Get him to talk to you and just as your about to send the money, oops something happens. Your gonna have to spend some time with him if you want him to safari. You could probably get a bank account out of him in short order however. If you want to PM me I'll go to work on him.
I'm currently working on my first safari, a love lad/laddet in Senegal I've been talking to for several months. With any luck, she/he will be taking a trip to Liberia in a few days to meet me and my briefcase of 2 million dollars.

Good Luck

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 11:31 pm

Quote:

I can see you are interested in renting the house I have pasted

Dunno why but this made me laugh so hard my ribs still hurt, lol.

Craigslist scammers really deserve to suffer. Can't sell anything on there anymore without the vermin crowding around you like vultures.
Definitely going to get into baiting them sometime.
Not too sure about using your father's name on the E-mail though... If he's got a very common name, with no real address to go with it you might be ok, but still a bit dodgy perhaps.
Still, good luck with this one.

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 11:31 pm

Welcome to Eater, Basher! As the mantra goes, read the stickies, visit Eater U, request a mentor if you'd like, bait safe and have fun!

I noticed this in your lad's correspondence:

Quote:

i am telling you this incase if you find the house on another website

Isn't s/he pretty much admitting that s/he is going to pimp your house all over the internet? Evil or Very Mad

I don't know anything about Craigslist Lads so I'm of little help, but I am certain there are folks with CL experience that will chip in. CL lads sound like a particularly nasty species. Go get 'em! Twisted Evil

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 11:49 pm

Basher wrote:

Todd Bowman wrote:

Quote:

i don't want him to get drunked one day and damaged my property

Welcome to 419eater Basher! I hope that this guy doesn't have your real contact information. IF he does you should drop him. you want to make sure to bait safe because some of these Lads are extremely dangerous.

That being said, I HATE craigslist Lads and you can feel free to PM me if there's anything I can do.

Give em hell!

They have my father's name (created an email addres with his name) and obviously location.

I used a fake name/e-mail to show interest, at this point, I don't believe the lad would know it was anyone from my family scambaiting him.

I've let craigslist know about the scam listing.

Thanks!

Just to clarify, from what I'm seeing in the comments - you are saying that they found your father's name, because he owns the house, and they created an email with his name, right?

In researching these scams I've found that this is the extra mile these scammers go to. They steal the pictures from the real estate site AND find out the name of the owner and create an email address accordingly. That way, when you or I look up the owner of the house on whitepages.com or elsewhere, it looks legit because it's the correct name.

Therefore, unfortunately, they inherently already have the owner's name and address, so as long as you bait him from a fake email and show interest in the house, s/he has no way of connecting you to the actual owner.

Good luck. Can't stand these jerks.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6

Yes buddy, that's all correct.

I filled in the application and luckily I will be able to rent my house...but first, I need to view it. I'm asking the lad if someone will be able to show it or if I can drive up from Tennessee to do a drive-by.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6

An update now. He has me on the hook, I'm deciding between renting this house and another one that I saw in town. The lad is promising me they will put in a pool soon, which is weighing heavily on my decision. Maybe a trip to WU to put the first month's rent and deposit down is in order....or better yet, how about I help fund the pool!

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 7:30 pm

Not sure if this is the place to propose this discussion, but figured I would start here. Would like to hear from mods, others, especially anyone who has dealt with craigslist rental scammers.

First, rental scammers pull pics from real estate site, then look up name of owner, and often (not always) create an email address using that name. i.e., jane.homeowner@yahoo.

thus, that single ad is likely the only one that links to the email, because these guys are trying to be precise to look more legit.

When that single ad (because they typically do list properties accurately by city) is taken down by craigslist, the jane.homeowner email is no longer useful to them, unless they are posting it on other rental listings sites, which I'm not sure they are.

Thus, would there be merit in trying to kill the email addys that they make for each individual house? It would potentially cut off communications between them and people they are currently scamming. They can make another, but then they have to make another ad, etc. I know that 419eater does not promote killing email addresses for very specific reasons, but wondering if there would be a real benefit in this case.

Just thinking out loud here.

edit: {not sure if this discussion should be moved Help, Hints, & Tips?}

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6

Might not be a bad idea. Although, they would probably just change their addresses and update the listings, it could potentially alert the victims to shady business.

On another note, some poor folks came up to my parent's house on Friday asking about the house for rent. My dad (shirt off and sweating like a hog of course, haha) was painting our deck and they asked if my dad was the "caretaker." They had gotten the same e-mail I posted earlier in this thread, and were going along with it. Thankfully, they stopped by the house, or could have very easily fallen victim. It's amazing and kind of sad, hoping Craigslist gets the ad taken down (although to this point they've ignored my e-mails and 100+ times I've flagged the posting).

Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:42 pm

Great that he was able to avert at least one person from this scam. Would be interested to hear if this happens with any frequency.

wonder how many people have driven by to look at the place, but haven't actually stopped. going to have to put up a "Not really for Rent" sign in the yard.

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:52 am

Just stepping in here to give my tuppence worth.

Safety is the main thing. Craigslist and other similar sites are rife with scammers from all over.

Rental lads have no patience. They will drop you after it becomes obvious that you are not going to pay. Some drop you as soon as you try to get them off script.
A safari or long bait is out of the question. (believe me, i've tried more than a few Wink

)

At best, you will achieve a short straight bait.
At least you are still wasting his time and it's something to cut your teeth on. Very Happy

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Mar 2010 Posts: 26

I know this is not the place to post this, but here it goes:

You know how craigslist assigns a number or virtual email address to your sale? It would be possible to first enter the posting, and then watermark the sale or ID number into the photo, and then upload the photo into the sale post. Unless the scammer manages to spoof the originating email address, the photo is tied to the sale.

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