I was looking for an apartment to rent on craiglist. I emailed someone from craiglist.
This is the first email from the scammer:
Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to look at my property.My
name is Kelly Amber, I'm 39 years old and I own this beautiful 2
bedrooms,2 bathrooms condo (1,087 square footage). It's located in 2720
Neilson Way, Santa Monica CA 90405. The unit is equipped with recessed
lighting, central air and heat, the condo come with two parking spots,a
storage unit where you can deposit my furniture (if you don't like it
and you want use your furniture),there is also a linen closet, and most
importantly, a new front loading stacked washer and drier. Pets allowed.
I've moved to United Kingdom with my job and decided to rent it because
the rent is very expensive here.The price is so low because I'm here
and is very hard to find a tenant.I can rent you the condo for min. 1
month and max. 6 years(or more).I really want to find a good and
responsible tenant for it, and I hope that you can send me some personal
information about yourself.The rent for whole the condo for 1 month is
$1,100.00 including all utilities(water,electricity, internet, cable,
parking , airconditioning, fireplace, dishwasher, garbage) and the
security deposit is $1,100.00 (you'll get the deposit back at your
departure-or you can use it to pay your last month of rent) and I want
to receive the money monthly in my bank account. You can move in the
condo in the same day when you receive the keys. The only problem is
that I`m the only person who has the keys and I have nobody in United
States that could show you the condo. In order to check it, see if you
like it(I'm sure that you'll love it), you need to receive the keys and
the contract.
If you want to rent the condo, please e-mail me back and I will explain you how the payment and shipping will take place!
This is the 2nd email from the scammer:
Before going further with anything I must tell you that for payments
I will use the eBay Company, they will secure the transaction of
payments. I will open a CASE ID# at eBay Company for this transaction
and I will give them your full name, shipping info, phone# and indicate
you as my tenant. After that, they will contact you with the payment
details, and they will ask you to send them a refundable deposit,
$2,200.00 in 24 hours(the money will be for the first month of rent +
the security deposit). After they receive your deposit, they will notify
me immediately to start the shipping of the keys and the contract. You
will receive a tracking number in max 24 hours after they receive your
deposit. The keys will reach to you in 3-4 days. After you'll receive
the keys and the contract, the 14 days of inspection period will start(
you'll have 14 days to see the condo, read the contract, decide if you
keep the condo or not).After the inspection you will contact them and
tell your decision: TAKE THE CONDO or NOT TAKE THE CONDO! In case you'll
take it you'll have to send them a copy of the contract signed by you
and they will release the money to me, if not you'll have to send them
the contract unsigned and they will refund your money($2,200.00), the
contract and the keys will be shipped back at my expenses! I will pay
the shipping and you'll have to pay the money transfer fee for the
refundable deposit.
Once again:
1. If you have the money $2,200.00 and if you want to rent it send me your full name, your shipping address and your phone#
2. I will open a CASE ID# at eBay Company for this transaction , and I will give them your info, and indicate you as my tenant.
3.
After that, they will contact you with the payment details(you'll have
to send them $2,200.00 via money transfer in the next 24 hours-you'll
need cash)
4. After they receive your deposit, they will notify me
immediately to start the shipping, and you will receive a tracking
number in max 24 hours after they receive your deposit.
5.From the
moment you receive the keys the 14 days inspection period will start.I
will make the transaction only in this way so if you have the money and
if you want to rent my condo send me your full name, your shipping
address, your phone# and I'll start the procedure.
This is the 3rd email from the scammer:
Hi Jose, what's going on? How are you today?
She was waiting for my money . cause I never send the cash to make the transaction. For the last 3 days i have been email her and this is what come now
[email protected]
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the
recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for
further information about the cause of this error. The error that the
other server returned was: 550 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox
unavailable (state 14
This is the pic of the fake condo in Santa Monica
http://www.mypicx.com/02072011/stmonicacondo/