The Property “Owner” Rental Scam

September 12, 2008 at 4:41 pm | In Rental Scams | 4 Comments

Here is how the scam works.

The scammer, usually from Nigeria, the UK or outside of the US, copies a residential rental ad from a rental site and reposts it to a free large classifieds site. They make the rental price very low in order to attract as many potential renters as possible.

The unassuming interested renter thinks the price is too good to be true but decides to contact the “owner” or “property manager” of the home.

The email response would look something like this. (This is a real email from a scammer). email is (corbeilh@yahoo.com)

Subject: Re: $800 / 3br – Better Than New!

We have decied to let you live in our house. As we have found your application very setisfactry and acceptable by my family. So we would want you to go through the acceptance form and get back to us on what you feel.I will be giving you a call later.we would like to send the following document to you via FEDEX to the address you sent to us and the tracking number will be sent to you so that you can possibly occupy our housePlease once againwe are giving you this on trust and do not dissapoint us and I promise you thatyou will love the house. So we are with the below document here with us.you will need to make Payment for Rent deposit and shippment of the Keys and document to the address you will have to provide to us.
Here are the contents of the document.

1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
2)Paper/Permanent house form
3)The house documetary file.

So please do get back to me today so that I will let know the next step to take concerning the payment. I await your reply ASAP.Regard and God bless you!!! You can call us on how to make payment for the shippment of the Keys and Document to the apartment. Our house number is +234-803-659-7132 OR 011-234-803-659-7132.or you can indicate if you want me to instruct you on how to make the payment.

Mr. Johnson David
WifeTheresa & daughter Melinda100 Church RoadLagosWest Africa. 01234
+234-803-659-7132 OR 011-234-803-659-7132
Missionary Code: 15148Z
http://new.gbgm-umc.org

The unassuming renter sends this scammer a check assuming they will then receive the keys to the property. Of course, the keys are never sent and the scammers now has the renters money.

In some cases, the scammer will tell the potential renter that they are out of the country but can send them the keys to see the house themselves. If they don’t like the house the “scammer’ says they will refund them their money. (Usually a $2,000 deposit)

The major red flags of any scam are:

  • Outside of the US
  • Misspellings
  • Wanting Payments – Cashiers Check, FEDEX, etc
  • Unable to personally show you the property
  • Is traveling on business and will just send you the keys

The Potential Resident Renter Scam

September 12, 2008 at 4:42 pm | In Rental Scams | 5 Comments
Tags:

The most common rental scam is when a potential renter is interested in your property. Here is how it works:

  1. The scammer finds your rental ad on a classifieds site.
  2. The scammer will contact you directly via email (Example Here). There are common themes (out of country, usually the UK, commonly references God, poor spelling and grammer, email address most commonly an @yahoo address, sometimes says they are a Reverend or Doctor.)
  3. The property owner or property manager does not know this is a scam and replies to the email with the information.
  4. The Scammer replies that they would like to rent the property but will not be able to see it because they are outside of the US. They say they will send a certified cashiers check.
  5. The certified cashiers check is received and the total is usually $1,000 – $2,000 over the deposit and first months rent amount.
  6. The scammer says they made a mistake and sent too much money and asks if they can have the remaining $1 – 2 thousand sent back to them.
  7. It takes 2 – 3 days for any bank to recognize a cashiers check as being fake.
  8. The unexpected property owner or manager thinks the money is already in the bank so they have no problem wiring the excess $1 – 2K back to the “potential renter”
  9. The Scammer recieves the funds and is never heard of again.

If this has happend to you in the past, please tell us your story in the comments below. If you need to contact the authorities you can find that information here.

What is RentalScams.org?

January 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm | In Rental Scams | 2 Comments

Our mission is to educate renters, property managers, agents and owners on the many different types of rental scams that are on the internet today.

The only way to defeat scammers is by eliminating their economic incentives to continue scamming. We feel, through education, we can accomplish this goal.

Dissecting a Rental Scam Email

October 15, 2008 at 6:16 pm | In Tips to Avoid Scams | 1 Comment
Tags:

There are commonalities with all rental scam emails. Below are some tips when dissecting a rental scam email.

  1. Does the email start out with Sir / Madam?
  2. Are there misspellings in the email?
  3. Are there character mistakes in the email? i.e Hello,my nameis Susie.
  4. Is there excessive capitalization?
  5. Does the email reference God, UK, Cashiers Check, Doctor, Nigeria, Reverend, etc.
  6. Is the email from a free email provider. i.e gmail, yahoo, aol, hotmail.
  7. Does the email refer to another person or agent?
  8. Does the email reference wanting to move in site unseen?

If the email has a majority of these commonalities, then the chances are very good it is a scammer. If you are unsure, it is best to not reply to the email.

The Money Order Rental Scam

September 13, 2008 at 3:26 pm | In Rental Scams | 2 Comments

Scammers will try to make the victim feel as comfortable as possible. Here is one way they do it.

  1. Scammer posts rental ad on a large free classifieds site and makes rental price extremely low
  2. The victim finds the ad and wants to rent the property
  3. Communication between the scammer and victim begins
  4. Scammer tells victim he is out of the country on business
  5. To ensure the victim has funds. the scammer asks the victim to wire money ($2,000) to any of the victims friends. This is suppose to make the victim feel better because they are wiring it to their own friend
  6. The scammer asks to see the receipt that funds have been transfered to the victims friend through MoneyGram
  7. With Money orders, the recipient can pick up the funds anywhere in the world. With the information on the receipt, the scammer picks up the money.

The Who Rental Scam

September 15, 2008 at 10:46 pm | In Rental Scams | Leave a Comment

The Scammers are using the WHO (World Health Organization) to scam out renters. Read more on this scam and how it plays on emotions here.

Below is the email from the scammer,

—————–

Good hearing from you am Dr Eric Neville,the Leaders of (WHO) world health organisation appointed by the World Health Assembly on 9 November 2006..

We own the House and also want you to know that it was due to our transfer that makes me and my family to leave the property and was post on craigslist.com to give it out for rent. We are looking for a reputable person that can take very good care of it, as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.

We are a Multi-Million Organisation authorized by the UNICEF AND UNITED NATION HEALTH GROUPS. Our work is to travel around the world, we supply food, drugs, and shelter to the poor,our organisation is known worldwide due to our good work and faith. we want to know if you also have love for the sick and poor around the world.We are in conjuction with Susan Collins the Senator of United state of America.

So right now we are in West Africa. with the keys and the document of the House. We try to look for an agent that we can give the keys and documents before we left but could not see any trusted and responsible agent and the only person that we trust was dead last year on plane crash,so we have nobody that can give the keys and documents before we left and we are as well don’t want our house to be used anyhow in our absent that is why we took it along with us. You can drive by to view it from outside at 11761 Via Vera Cruz Ct Las Vegas, NV 89138.

So get back to us on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home.please let us know If you are staying for a long period of time, We are okay with one month deposit payment of ($1,250) including the security deposit,looking forward to hear from you.Our rental form has been attached to you that you will have to fill to qualify for this rent.

Looking forward to hear from you with all the application details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.

Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how the keys and documents would be ship to you via Fedex company.

Thanks Remain Bless

Eliminating Rental Scams Through Economics

October 14, 2008 at 5:41 pm | In Tips to Avoid Scams | 1 Comment

Originally from the rentBits.com blog.

In 2007, total internet fraud was around $240 million in the US.

Over the last year or so, the rental industry has seen a dramatic rise in rental scams and rental scam complaints.

At Rent Marketer and Apartment Marketer, we do everything in our power to ensure rental scams don’t get sent to our clients or renters. It is virtually impossible to stop every single scam email from getting through our system, but for those that do, we hope through education we will be able to hit the scammers where it hurts the most, through economics.

If we can eliminate the economic incentives for scammers, we can eliminate their behavior completely. If we can educate renters, property managers, owners, and agents on the various rental scams, over time, scammers will no longer have an economic incentive to scam.

Both Rent Marketer and Apartment Marketer use a variety of tools to help educate consumers and decrease the chances of a scammer contacting a client or renter.

Here is what we do:

  1. Every Phone Number is Masked with a free Toll Free number
    1. One thing you don’t want is to have your cell phone or house number out there for all to see. It is very easy to to do a reverse phone lookup and find your name, address, and any other information these scammers can use against you.
  2. Known Scammer emails and Phone Numbers are Filtered
    1. Being proactive, (stopping scam emails from reaching our clients) and Reactive (Immediately stopping scammer email and phone numbers from reaching any further clients)
    2. Using other proprietary filtering technology
  3. Educational Tools
    1. Every email has a scammer warning attached
    2. We recently launched RentalScams.org to help educate and call out scammer email addresses and email content
    3. Who to contact about scam information in account
  4. Screening Ads
    1. Some scammers try to post ads and do a “Property Owner Scam“
    2. We Screen ads using a variety of techniques

There is more we as an industry can do to help in the destruction of the rental scammer business model. By working together, we can do much more than working alone.

Some thoughts on how we can work together (I will write more about this in another post). Some suggestions may not work but this is meant to start a conversation:

  1. Central Rental Scammer Database
    1. All rental and classifieds sites could connect to it in real time to post or receive data on known rental scammers.
  2. Help from ISPs and Email providers like Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, etc
    1. Most free email providers are automatically reading the content of the email in order to serve relevant ads. Gmail for example does this and notifies users of known phishing emails. Why couldn’t Google do this with renter scammers? Most scam emails have very similar content.
  3. Government Agency Help
    1. The FTC and the BBB has a lot of information on scammers. Could we use this data?
  4. Combined Rental and Classified Help
      

    1. What about a cookie being placed on known scammer browsers? If that scammer tries to go to another participating rental or classified site they are flagged.

What you some of your ideas?

7 Warning Signs of Possible Fraud

September 22, 2008 at 5:00 pm | In Tips to Avoid Scams | Leave a Comment

Our good friends at ForRentByOwner.com has given 7 Warning Signs of Possible Fraud.

  1. Unable to perform a credit check on a prospective tenant, i.e., wrong or no social security number.
  2. Emails are overly polite, very poorly written or express excessive eagerness to rent without having inspected the property.
  3. Tenant does not send funds as promised or delays providing requested information.
  4. Email is sent from another country or the tenant claims to live in one country but email is sent from another with inadequate explanation.
  5. Beware of comments such as, “I need to hear from you today”, “I am arriving next week and need to establish residency” or any indication of extreme urgency early in your communications.
  6. Tenant asks you not to cash a rent or security deposit check, or asks you to purchase items or contract services on his behalf.
  7. Finally, never provide your bank account number, bank routing number or other financial or personal information.

The Sponsor Rental Scam

September 25, 2008 at 5:21 pm | In Known Rental Scammers, Rental Scams | 9 Comments

We received a letter from a reader notifying us of a scammer who said the have a sponsor. This is how the scam works.

  1. Scammer contacts home owner
  2. Scammer says they will be living in the states for 2 years and that a large company is sponsoring them
  3. Scammer send Fake Cashiers check for a large sum of money.
  4. Scammer asks if home owner can send the remaining money to their sponsor via a wire
  5. Fake cashiers check is not noticed as fake and the home owner wires remaing funds to scammer

The reader contacted this individual and below is the conversation.

Subject: Re: $1295 / 3br – Adorable Single Family Home (Williamstown) (map)
To: natal85_blige88@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Friday, 19 September, 2008, 2:42 PM

hI,
HOW ARE YOU. i WOULD BE HAPPY TO HAVE YOU RENT MY HOME. hOWEVER i WOULD NEED SOME CONFIRMATION FROM THE ELI LILLY COMPANY THAT THIS IS THE ARRANGEMENT. i WOULD NEED TO HAVE A NUMBER TO CONTACT THEM. IN THE NORMAL CONTRACT i REVEIW QUALIFICATIONS OF THE APPLICANT TO PAY BUT THAT WOULD BE QUITE DIFFERENT FOR YOU.
IF YOU COULD FURNISH ME A CONTACT THERE TO CONFIRM ALL OF THESE DETAILS I WOULD APPRECIATE IT. PLEASE RESPOND SOON AS I DO HAVE PEOPLE LOOKING AT THIS HOME.
THANK YOU
————– Original message ————–
From: natal blige <natal85_blige88@yahoo.co.uk>

Good day,
I really appreciate your response and details provided, my sponsors (Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals) have agreed on the monthly fees to be paid for the next two years on my behalf. Therefore, they agreed to pay up front the amount of ($3238 PAYMENT FOR THE FIRST MONTH RENT PLUS DEPOSIT STARTING FROM MY MOVING IN DATE WHICH WILL BE ON THE 4TH OF OCTOBER); also since I will be staying for two years, the company has agreed to pay in a monthly installation. Furthermore, I would like you to know a US Cashier che que will be issued to you in an excess amount by my sponsors for the first month rent, security deposit and my travelling expenses; the excess amount will be sent to me immediately as soon as you receive payment from my sponsors.
However, the information below is required from you by my sponsors to have payment sent to you immediately in order for you to hold down this property until I arrive;

 

NAME ON US CASHIER CHEQUE
 

FULL CONTACT ADDRESS
 

HOME PHONE NUMBER
 

MOBILE NUMBER
 

 

Finally, I would like to know how peaceful is the neighbourhood and how close is the property from the bus/train station as I will be leaving on the 3rd and arriving on the 4th of October. My main purpose of relocating is based on my research proposal on Pharmaceutical industries (Financial Analysis); and I was granted a part time sponsorship on my accommodation and travel expense. Also all necessary Paper work will be treated by me when I arrive and set to move into th e property.  

I await the details soonest for payment, so I can start my moving in plans ASAP.
 

Regards
 

Natal Blige 

— On Tue, 16/9/08, wrote:

Subject: Re: $1295 / 3br – Adorable Single Family Home (Williamstown) (map)
To: natal85_blige88@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tuesday, 16 September, 2008, 3:03 PM

Hi,
the rent is 1295.00 per month and the deposit would be 1 1/2 month security.
is is a very cute house and nice neighborhood.
——- Original message ————–
From: natal blige <natal85_blige88@yahoo.co.uk>
Good day Sir/ Madam,
My name is Natal Blige; I am 24 years of age and a citizen of the United Kingdom and will be relocating for a short period of two years on a research programme to the United States . As I was reviewing rental adverts, I got particularly interested in your property, I would like you to email me pictures, and I would also like to know the exact fees to be paid monthly and the security deposit in order for me to pass information to my sponsors.
Thanks for your assistance.
Cheers6

Known Rental Scammer – com2uhome@live.com

June 13, 2009 at 1:30 pm | In Known Rental Scammers | 1 Comment

Hello,
My name is Katie Critchlow,A U.k citizen and am moving to the United states with my Husband and 3 children on vacation,we’re looking for an apartment and i came across your ads and it is suitable for us and ready to rent it as we moved straight to the U.S as soon as we found the right apartment which your flat is.
I want you to get back to get back to me with the rent of the apartment with deposit as we’re looking to rent for a long time.
I want you to e-mail me further photos of interior of the apartment also.
We dont smoke and dont have pets too and dont keep late at out.
Easygoing,humble,clean,and love meeting new people.
And you can get back to us thru this mail
Hope to read back from you

Known Rental Scammer – daveclarke.inc02@gmail.com

June 10, 2009 at 2:53 pm | In Known Rental Scammers | 1 Comment

Hi ,

Thanks for your mail, I will be willing to pay 1 month rent to start with plus the security deposit in order to secure this unit prior to my arrival.
I am an Engineer by profession and I am currently working with Wessex Survey & Design Ltd UK. I will be coming to the state for the next one year and during my stay, I will be working with Black & Veatch Incorporation a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company specializing in infrastructure development in energy, water, telecommunications, management consulting, federal and environmental markets.

My sole  financier will be handling the rent deposit payment on my behalf, I will instruct him to send you a Certified Check for this as soon as you give me the go ahead to make out payment to you. Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival, we are making arrangements with a furniture company to supply the home with furnitures,so we will need you to provide us with the the following:

# Measurements of the living room and bedroom.

# Picture viewing the living room and the bed room(s).

# As regards the lease agreement and application, I want you to send it to me for my review.

I will eventually have it filled and signed on my arrival in your place as I am of the opinion that such documents are best filled and signed physically by appending signatory at best physical. We can start the lease by asap and I will be doing a one year lease. You can prepare the lease in my name.

I will look forward to your e-mail with the required information.
Thanks and sincere regards from me and my precious  family. I await your urgent response.
Regards
Reference:
Karen L. Daniel
Chief Financial Officer
Black and Veatch Incoporation

Known Rental Scammer – susan.marshall15@yahoo.com

June 1, 2009 at 7:26 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Hello
Thanks for your response regarding your interest in having my house for rent.The house is much available for now and it a 3 bedroom home..I want you to know that i am the owner of this building situated at 11934 W 71st Place Arvada , CO 80004 .But i am now presently in West Africa for my Hopitals Project prayer crusade with my wife and we have the keys right here with us.I will like to inform you that it was due to my transfer that makes us to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a resposible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own..So for now,We are here in West Africa,NIGERIA our new house and also with the keys of the house,we are trying to look for an agent that we can give this document before we left but could not see and we are as well as don’t want our house to be used any how in our absent that is why we took it along with us here.We are only willing to give the house out to a lovely and caring family only, so if you know you cannot give the house the neatness it deserves please don’t contact me.But if you promise to always take good care of the house,get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting a home.Hope you are okay with the monthly price of $700 with hydro,heat laundry facilities,air-condition Etc.I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP,Our house number is +234-802-891-2665 or 011234-703-457-8588, below is the application form for you to fill and discuss on how to get the house for rent..
Kindly confirm your interest by filling the form below:
TENANT RENT APPLICATION
FIRST NAME: __________________
MIDDLE NAME: __________________
LAST NAME: __________________
PROFESSION: ________________
PHONE (____) __________ (CELL)
PHONE (____) __________ (WORK)
PHONE (____) __________ (HOME)
MARITAL STATUS: _________
KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
Home ADDRESS: ___________________________
CITY: _______________
STATE: ______________
ZIPCODE: ____________
HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTING
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING? _______________________________________________________________________
CURRENT RENT: _______
IF THIS House IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________

Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase 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 key to you,please we are giving you all this base on t r ust and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that,we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand,so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this.
Regards.

 

—-

 

We have decided to let you live in our house. As we have found your application very satisfactry and acceptable by my family. so we would want you to go through the acceptance form and get back to us on what you feel. I will be giving you a call later . 
We would like to send the following document to you via FEDEX to the address you sent to us and the tracking number will be sent to you so that you can possibly occupy our house, Please once again, we are giving you this on trust and do not dissapoint us and i promise you that, you will love the house. So we are with the below document here with us. you will need to make Payment for Rent deposit and shippment of the Keys and document to the address you will have to provide to us .
 
Here are the contents of the document.

Known Rental Scammer – b_henry2010@yahoo.com

May 20, 2009 at 2:32 pm | In Known Rental Scammers | Leave a Comment

From/ReplyTo Email: b_henry2010@yahoo.com
Name: Henry Brown
Hello there an interested in your APT am presently not around but pay down for the APT before somebody else does so i will be paying you in chasier check so i will need the following details in which i will send the check to.
FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:

 

Alright, Thanks for getting back to me earlier, i do appreciate this from you, now your details have been forwarded to my secretary for the issuance of the payment… OK . The payment is going to be the money of your item and shipping cost OK all you need to when you have receive the check is to take it to your bank and get it clear the same day you receive it after that, deduct your own money and get the rest send to the pick up agent so that they could come to your location for the pick up of this item OK , i hope this is very clear by you and i will keep updating you till the end of this transaction.
regards Henry

Known Rental Scammer – imsharon017@gmail.com

May 3, 2009 at 5:15 pm | In Known Rental Scammers | 1 Comment

imsharon017@gmail.com

Hi ,
 
Thanks for your mail, I will be willing to pay 1 month rent to start with plus the security deposit in order to secure this unit prior to my arrival.  
 
I am an Engineer by profession and I am currently working with Wessex Survey & Design Ltd UK. I will be coming to the state for the next one year and during my stay, I will be working with Black & Veatch Incorporation a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company specializing in infrastructure development in energy, water, telecommunications, management consulting, federal and environmental markets.
 
My sole  financier that is based in the States  will be handling the rent deposit payment on my behalf, I will instruct him to send you a Certified Check for this as soon as you give me the go ahead to make out payment to you. Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival, we are making arrangements with a furniture company to supply the home with furnitures,so we will need you to provide us with the the following:
 
# Measurements of the living room and bedroom. 
 
# Picture viewing the living room and the bed room(s).
 
# As regards the lease agreement and application, I want you to send it to me for my review. I will eventually have it filled and signed on my arrival in your place as I am of the opinion that such documents are best filled and signed physically by appending signatory at best physical. We can start the lease by asap and I will be doing a one year lease. You can prepare the lease in my name.
 
 I will look forward to your e-mail with the required information.
 
Thanks and sincere regards from me and my precious  family. I await your urgent response.
 
Regards

Contact me on (+44)- 7031905654
 
Reference:
Karen L. Daniel
Chief Financial Officer 
Black and Veatch Incoporation

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