House Scam

Hi guys, my friends and I are looking for a place off campus to live so we can actually have some fun for once.

I emailed this person about their house after I saw their add on CL-here is their response

I'm pretty sure the guy is Indian from his email address, so that might explain the lack of good grammar, or he's just trying to scam me i dont know.

Hi, I did get your response concerning the AD I posted on craigslist. The house is still available but presently I'm not around.. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago inWest Africa and fortunately I won the bidding so I have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because I will still have to rebid for it in the next 7 years. I came over here with my wife, we both bought the house when we got married. As soon as we settle down here I had a thought of selling the house so I have to look for an agent, after getting one, we got a deal but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house. I reasoned with her and accepted her advise. So I contacted the agent back and requested for my keys and documents. Later we decided to have the house rent out, we would have give the same agent this job also but the truth of the matter is that the agent would want to handle it professionally and the occupant may not be able to reason along with him later. If you notice, you will discovered that the price we are offering is far below standard price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the absolute care for the property. I know there is no way I can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we won't be able to see physical before sending you the keys and the documents to occupy the space. But I just had a feeling that anyone who knows what it takes to put the kind of structure down should know that maintaining a building is mandatory, so if you belief you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours then I will be more than happy to let you rent the house.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 ( ) ___ Date of Birth____ Other Phone ( ) ___ Current Address____Apt#_____ City___ State Zip_ Reasons for Leaving____Rent $_ Are you married____ How many people will be living in the house____ How many people will be living in the house____ Do you have a pet____ Do you have a car____ Occupation____ How long do you want to rent this home___ Move In Date____ How soon can you pay the deposit___

TAKE NOTE: YOU CAN ONLY DRIVE BY AND SEE MY HOUSE FROM THE OUTSIDE AND IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN RENTING GET THE APPLICATION FORM FILLED OUT AND SEND IT BACK TO ME SO THAT I CAN SHIP MY KEYS TO YOU FOR YOU BE ABLE TO GO AND LOOK AT THE INSIDE OR MOVE IN IMMEDIATELY. I WOULD HAVE REALLY LOVE TO SHIP THE KEYS TO SOMEONE IN STATE BUT I DON'T HAVE ANYBODY THERE RIGHT NOW AND I DON'T WANT TO MAKE USE OF ANY THIRD PARTY THAT IS WHY AM HANDLING MY PROPERTY MYSELF..

Is this a scam?

Steven

My initial reaction would be scam, but he's not asking anything that would be used to steal from you, yet. (like bank routing numbers, SSN, etc.) Birthdate is questionable...

However, my guess is that after you respond with the above, the next email will be obviously a scam.

Regardless, dealing with a landlord in a different country would suck. I'd run away.

-Rob

I stopped reading after the first five lines. I trust the rest of the board to fill me in.

My spidey sense is screaming scam. I'm pretty sure I've heard this one before.

similar scam

yeah Im just going to go ahead and call this one a scam..it was a 5Br, 4bath house for $850 a month..too good to be true.

Steven

Well, he's moving to Africa because he's discovered an inheritance of $11 million dollars. He'll soon be advertising to split that money with someone if they help him.

It's a scam. They'll ask you to send the deposit check to or something for them to send the keys and funnily enough, the keys never turn up.

If you look hard enough you'll probably find that the property is either advertised for sale or for rent and they borrowed the pictures and address from there.

Perhaps someone could give us his contact info. I'm sure many of us who have experience developing West African oil fields would love to help him out.

Homeowner: said: Please send me all of the personal information required for identity theft and come by to look at the bridge I am selling.

Run!

Had the same scam running here in Ft. Lauderdale. A bunch of people fell for it. Like always, super price for something really nice. Run away.

Always a prime opportunity to F with them for some fun entertainment. Get them to carve a wooden Commodore 64 or something.

Ummmmmmm, this is like a pricey watch at that one store without a price tag.

If you have to ask...........

date of birth would not be an unreasonable question on a lease, but you're just inquiring. run away.

Also: This is Craigslist we're talking about. The first few contacts are typically short to verify that both parties exist, are legitimate, and are not crazy, and then business proceeds from there.

another version of this scam links a real MLS ad (nto belonging to the person posting the CL ad, but linked by them) and says "send me a month's rent for security deposit and get the keys from the next-door neighbor."