| Does this email seem like a housing scam ?I'm looking for a place in Vancouver and I already have been emailed back by a scammer, this email seems similar but I'm not entirely sure if it is.. does anyone have any experience with similar emails?
It wouldn't seem suspicious to me had I not received a similar email before. Here it is:
Hi! Here are a few pictures of my apartment... Please check the attached file!
I appreciate your interest in renting my apartment... I must apologize for the long email that i send you, but renting it is important to you, and I want to try and give you some insight into who I am and about the home you are renting.
My name is Raymond Amber and I'm the owner of the apartment, I love this apartment and it means a lot to me. It looks exactly like in the pictures. The apartment is paid in full and with NO legal problem, I am telling you this because with this financial crisis there are many apartments with problems.
The apartment is very close, in walking distance to local transport, bus, etc. with very quiet neighbors and area. Minutes away from downtown, close to school, transit and shopping. Drive way parking, affordably priced, clean mature neighbors seeking same in tenant. Great neighbors!
It has just been renovated, totally finished, flexible lease, is nice, clean, quiet, has all the facilities and the utilities a man needs including electric Utility, Cable TV, Parking, Laundry in the bldg, Air conditioning, high speed internet, workout facility, well behaved pets are allowed.
Accommodation Features:
Wood Floor
Heater
Central Heating
Equiped Kitchen
Tv: Cable/Satellite TV
Video/Stereo
Internet
Air Conditioning
Full Kitchen
Refrigerator
Garage/Car park
Pets allowed
Kitchen Features:
Washing machine
Juice Machine
Iron
Toaster
Oven
Dishwasher
Coffee Maker
Microwave
Refrigerator
Stove
The apartment is fully furnished, but I have the option of sending all my furniture into storage if you want to bring your own (no extra costs). It comes with a storage unit where you can deposit my furniture (if you don't like it and you want use your furniture).
The renting period is from 5 months up to 3 years (the longer the better). The rent for 1 month is $1100.00 (for the whole apartment). The all utilities are included in this price (rent/month), utilities are about $60.00-$80.00/month.
As a result of this I want to rent it, for this period, at this price and also to find the perfect person for my apartment. I just want to find the proper tenant, someone who will treat and care my apartment like it was his own.
I'm looking forward to rent it as soon as possible, I need the money and I must do that... $1100.00 is a good deal. Don't miss out on this bundle opportunity! We can make the deal happen right away.
What I need to know about you:
1. Your full name
2. Your full address & phone number
3. h*************u
4. Are you married
5. How many people will be living in the house
6. Do you have a pet
7. Do you have a car
8. Occupation
9. I will like to know the exact date you will like to move into the apartment
10. How long do you want to stay in my house
11. Reason for moving out of current home
Please send me an e-mail with the information I requested. If you are interested in the apartment, describe yourself so i can have an idea about you and the people that will be living in my apartment.
I will select a candidate out of the e-mails that I will receive. I really need to take care of this matter by the end of the next week.
Sincerely,
Raymond Amber
Asked By: Wilma - 6/16/2011 |
100?cam.
There is no apartment, there are only stolen pictures of someone else's apartment.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money. Might even be the same scammer that emailed you before, just with new copy/paste emails. The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses and will demand you pay for rent and fees, in cash, and only by Western Union or moneygram.
Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
If you google "fake apartment rental Western Union", "fraud Western Union house rental scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.
Answered By: Buffy Staffordshire - 6/16/2011 |