Funny scam

[Hurlshort]

I'm planning on renting out my condo, and I've come into contact with a very odd scam. I posted my condo on craigslist and got this response:

 

Hello,

 

I saw your house for rent advertised on craigslist. I'm interested in renting it,it's still available? and will be willing to offer you 2 months rent plus the security deposit in order to secure this unit prior to our arrival.What is the electricity/utility cost would be ?? Could you please let me know all the unit amenities including the measurement ? I will like to have this unit myself. You can send me the application lease for me to review. Probably,i will eventually have it fill out and sign physically in person on my arrival. Are you the owner of the apartment ? You can reach me on my cell phone : +44-703-195-5127 Hope to hear from you.

 

 

Varga

 

This seemed odd to me, but it didn't raise too many flags. I figured he might be from Mexico, and that is not uncommon in my area. So I emailed back with a few specifics. Then I got this doozy:

 

Thanks for your prompt mail towards the unit i want to rent. I am a Doctor by profession of Radiologist and currently working with St.Mark's Hospital, 23 Salt Lake City Central London. I'm willing to sign one year lease physically on my arrival because i will be in the states for the next one year with my wife and five years old daughter and during my stay i will be on for my professional work and establish Radiologist research in the state.Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival,my family decide to have our own furniture to supply the home with furniture,so we will need you to provide us with the measurements of the living room and bedroom so that we can send it to the furniture company.

 

As regards the lease agreement, i will eventually have it filled and signed all necessary paper physically in person on my arrival,{ please i want your consideration for that }. We can start the lease by 9th of June and we will be doing a one year lease, fortunately we'll be arriving to the state on 5th of July and i want the lease in my name Dr.Valentin Varga and my wife Mrs.Rose Varga. Please call my cell phone +447031955127 .

 

What is the rent and deposit required to be paid by me in order to secure this rental prior to our arrival ? I will need you to provide me with your full name in which the check will be issued out and your complete physical contact address in other to instruct my financier to go ahead with payment. Also reconfirm the total move in costs,that is the rent and deposit to be paid in time. I will need your phone number # . I'll be looking forward to hear from you.

 

Dr. Varga

 

Well, that raised some serious red flags! I looked it up and found out it is a scam. But where exactly is this guy making his money? It seems more like a time waster then an actual money scam!

[Walsingham]

I don't see it is necessarily a scam, although I agree flags should be raised. I suggest that you check his details with the hospital immediately, and contact teh doc in question at the address and so on that the hospital has NOT the one he has given you. Keep us posted.

[LadyCrimson]

I think this would fall under the overpayment type of scam. ie, they give you a fraudulent check/MO that you deposit...then somehow convince you to send them money back before the bank rejects their stuff for insufficient funds.

 

W/my own quick google, I think one of the later mails from the other similar craigslist scams would look something like this:

 

We will ask you for a favour here,can we rely on you to take

delivery of the furniture for us when they are delivered? We will

instruct the furniture company to contact you to schedule a delivery

date and time that will be convenient for you to receive the furniture

for us.

 

As you will be handling the delivery of the furniture for us,we july

ask our financier to include the costs of our furniture with the rent

and deposit to be sent to you so that you can help us to make the

payment when it is delivered. We will really appreciate if you can do

this for us and promise to compensate you adequately for your time and

efforts on our arrival in your place.

 

Please let me know if this will be okay with you so that i can

instruct our financier to go ahead with the payment.

 

So they'd probably send you a MO, then send another mail/call claiming they've canceled the furniture delivery and desperately need those 'extra' furniture funds back in order to cover moving expenses. Since you think it's 'extra' beyond your rent fee, you send it. Etc.

[Aristes]

It doesn't seem worth it at any rate. There are safer bets for renting your condo, especially in nor Cal. I don't know exactly where the condo is located, and I can't assure you I'm not interested in renting it, but some of the areas have had pretty resilient markets.

[Hurlshort]

I don't see it is necessarily a scam, although I agree flags should be raised. I suggest that you check his details with the hospital immediately, and contact teh doc in question at the address and so on that the hospital has NOT the one he has given you. Keep us posted.

 

I looked it up at one of the scam reporting sites, and the details are exact copies of some other emails people have gotten, so it's definitely a scam.

 

We've had plenty of interest on the condo from non-scammers though, and we have a couple people coming out to tour it this weekend. Actually it's been surprising how much interest there is, I should have asked for more rent!

 

Now I need to figure out how to do credit and background checks though.

[Hell Kitty]

So is St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City or is it in Central London? It's like they aren't even trying.

[Gorgon]

Well they are fishing for idiots, I imagine weeding out people with common sense would be helpful.

[Aristes]

hahahaha That was funny. I wondered about Salt Lake City also.

 

I've received the "I'm a high level member of <insert African government here> and I need help moving some money around... if you send me all your base, then we will belong to you" scam.

 

You know, between the grocery and church, my wife and I have been approached by 4 pan handlers over the past week. Seriously, I'm starting to look around for the candid camera guy. I actually did give a few dollars to some old lady. The young white and middle aged black guys I told I didn't have money. My wife really did not have money, so I guess she didn't have a choice. We give a lot to charity, but I'm leery of giving to pan handlers. One of them, the middle aged guy, was clearly a practiced hand. Asked me what position I play in football. Yeah, I'm a big guy, but my days of looking like I could play football without the attendant grasping of chest and falling down dead part are pretty long gone. scams, I tells ya!

[Walsingham]

There are scam sites? Weird. I still say you'd have caught them if you'd done what I said.

[Hurlshort]

There are scam sites? Weird. I still say you'd have caught them if you'd done what I said.

 

Actually it was the first thing I did Wals, I looked for the hospital and checked to see if there was a staff directory. That yielded no results, so I tried to type a few other details, and a scammer beware site came up with my same details.

[Hiro Protagonist]

We've had plenty of interest on the condo from non-scammers though, and we have a couple people coming out to tour it this weekend. Actually it's been surprising how much interest there is, I should have asked for more rent!

 

Now I need to figure out how to do credit and background checks though.

 

Wouldn't it be easier and safer to rent it through a real estate agent? The agents can do the credit and background checks. I rent my 3br townhouse through an agent and he takes care of everything. eg. If tenant falls behind in rent, they will take the tenant to the tribunal to have the back rent paid and can evict the tenant.

[Walsingham]

There are scam sites? Weird. I still say you'd have caught them if you'd done what I said.

 

Actually it was the first thing I did Wals, I looked for the hospital and checked to see if there was a staff directory. That yielded no results, so I tried to type a few other details, and a scammer beware site came up with my same details.

 

 

 

Have you mentioned it to the cops? They may be able to do a sting. If not them, then Craiglist may be interested. I gather they're still smarting from closing their adult section. They may be able to use some positive PR by helping to nail the guy.

[Gorgon]

I'd wager the complaint would go in the same pile as the **** enlargement emails. Police haven't got time to investigate internet scams.

[Gorgon]

**** a dirty word.... who would have thunk. What's the PC version I wonder.

Edited June 7, 2009 by Gorth
Circumventing language filter

[Tigranes]

Dugong.

[Hurlshort]

I found a tenant for my place. I'm going to manage it myself for now, I appreciate the advice though. It's a Mormon family, so hopefully that eliminates the chance of wild keggers every weekend.

[Gorgon]

Reason for edit: Circumventing language filter

**** a dirty word.... who would have thunk. What's the PC version I wonder.

 

 

 

Nonsense, it's the medical term, and it was not used as an expletive. You just like your buttons a bit more than the other mods, isn't that where we are really at.

 

Words can be offensive, but that goes for excessive meddling as well.

Edited June 8, 2009 by Gorgon

[Hurlshort]

Take it up over a PM Gorgon, don't hi-jack my thread.

[Aristes]

Hey, congrats on renting the condo, Hurl. Did you get a good price? ...And, did you ever get anything more from the scammer or did they just drop off the radar?

[Gorgon]

Take it up over a PM Gorgon, don't hi-jack my thread.

I'm done complaining now, you can have it back.

[Maria Caliban]

Dugong.

 

No, that's the Chinese herb they stick in tea to relieve menstrual cramps. The correct term is 'dangly bits.'

[Enoch]

I suspect that **** is a filtered word more because its appearance on the internet is predominantly associated with spam than because it is "dirty."

[samm]

 

It better not be dirty, all kinds of nasty things grow in such dirt, causing various diseases on anyone that comes in any kind of contact with it.

 

 

[edit]

Sorry. That's completely offtopic. I spoilt it now

Edited June 8, 2009 by samm

[Hurlshort]

Hey, congrats on renting the condo, Hurl. Did you get a good price? ...And, did you ever get anything more from the scammer or did they just drop off the radar?

 

I'm happy with it, $1100 a month. Unfortunately we bought at the top of the housing bubble, so that doesn't nearly cover our mortgage, but we can write off the loss on our taxes from what I hear. Plus if I can rent it long term, hopefully the market will return to a decent price and I can get a more comfortable mortgage someday.

[Calax]

Dugong.

 

No, that's the Chinese herb they stick in tea to relieve menstrual cramps. The correct term is 'dangly bits.'

Isn't that a pokemon?