So I've listed my condo on roommates.com in the hopes of finding someone worthwhile to have as a roommate. All well and good.
The other day I receive an e-mail from a girl in the UK who is planning on moving to the US. That's cool I think. I check out the profile to get more info. The profile looks ok but a few alarm bells go off when I notice that her profile is exactly the same has her e-mail to me.
I decide to give her the benefit of the doubt as I got sick of trying to write unique e-mails to every person I was responding to. I replied back to her. I then recieved an e-mail asking for the breakdown of the costs and to send her some pics of the apartment.
Hmm.... that's odd. I sent her a URL of my web album with all the pics I've taken. I respond back and ask a few questions about her to try to get some personal information. Something to prove this wasn't a scam. NOPE.
I received the most recent e-mail today and it commented that she was hoping to finish her current assignment (apparently she worked for the W.H.O) on APRIL 15TH. Hmm.... I know the time zones are different but how do you "hope" to be done with an assignment by a date that is a MONTH OLD! Ugh...
At least I had the commen sense to not give out any major information until I had some better idea of who this person was and that I was able to come to the conclusion that it was a scammer from the beginning.
At any rate, does anyone know any professional-type people or grad students (basically not undergrads) that are looking for a room? Avialable starting June 1. :)
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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2 comments:
Oooh. This is the CLASSIC format of a check fraud scam. Basically, somebody tells you they want to rent a room from you. They agree to send you some money which they send in the form of a United States Postal Money Order. They deliberately make out the check for more than the amount due and they ask you to deposit the check Western Union the excess funds back to them. A few days after you've done that, the check bounces and you have absolutely no recourse to recover the funds. Sounds like that may be what's going on. If you want to know for sure, contact that person again and ask them if they're still interested and how they'd be paying for the deposit. If they start talking money orders and wires, you've got them nailed.
Oh by the way, it could also be a Western Union money order or Travelers Express or other form of "highly trusted" financial institution. They're always counterfeit though, some look better than others. This scam isn't limited to apartment rentals. It also happens with eBay auctions and people just meeting in chat rooms.
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