Home: Scams : Rental Scams – Home Sweet Home it is Not

Rental Scams – Home Sweet Home it is Not

Posted by Identity Safe on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

An alarming amount of homeowners are facing foreclosure, and more so this year than in years past, will be filing bankruptcy. Unable to buy a new home until their credit has been rebuilt, these families have been flooding the rental market. Property management companies are seeing an increase in applicants. These new renters, though, aren’t eligible to rent a home through many property management companies. Designed to protect landlords by screening new applicants, and tenants by ensuring that repairs are made in a timely manner, a person with a current foreclosure or new bankruptcy is a risk that professional property managers don’t often take.

These new renters are often advised to deal directly with homeowners, and rent from an owner/manager. Sometimes owner/managers don’t often have an efficient and systematic way of dealing with maintenance and repair issues. Dealing directly with an individual opens a renter up to hoaxes and scams, that they need to be wary of.

If It’s Too Good to Be True …

In 1995 the Jones’ rented a house in a nice neighborhood, surrounded by manicured lawns, from a property management company that had set up a booth at the local county fair. The representative allowed them to move in and mail their deposit and first rent payment, and had a local courier drop off the keys. They were ecstatic. Two weeks later, the local sheriff came to the door to post a 48 hour notice. The house had been sold at a bank auction a month prior and they were in danger of eviction. The property management company didn’t exist and the cellular phone of the representative they spoke with was disconnected.

Many Scams Lurk on Craigslist

In October of 2008, the Martins were house hunting. Walking away from their foreclosed home in rural Washington State, they searched on Craigslist for a house in the city. (All names and locations have been changed.)

One listing in particular caught their eye:

Sounded like a great deal. After checking out the house on Google maps to get a feel for the neighborhood, and to check out the backyard and make sure it wasn’t next door to the city dump, the Martins drove by the house. Liking what they saw, they decided to email the homeowner to schedule a look at the inside. They received the following email:

Hello,

Thanks for your email and interest in renting my house..I am Dennis Latimer,the owner of the house you are making enquiry of… I resided in the house with my immediate family, my wife and my only son before and now presently we have moved out of the house due to my transfer from my work now and I am in Warsaw,Poland. Presently my house is available for rent for $1500 USD (rent already includes utilities).Moreso Now, i’m currently visiting on holiday in Lagos,Nigeria for an international christian follower’s crusade.

Pls i want you to note that,i am a kind, honest and trustworthy man and also to know that i spent a lot of time and money on making my property special that i want to give to you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to please treat it as your own, It is not the money that is the main problem but i want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat and clean when i come back for a check up.I also want you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word.This is the address of the House (123 Alberta Street)I believe its absolutely a perfect kind of home for you and your family.Utilities included which means that the Water, Trash, Sewer, Gas, Power are already included in the rent price fee.

SO IF YOU ARE REALY INTRESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE
RENT APPLICATION FORM BELOW

RENT APPLICATION FORM.

FIRST NAME:__________?
MIDDLE NAME:__________?
LAST NAME:__________?
PROFESSION:__________?
PHONE:
(CELL)PHONE__________?
(WORK)PHONE__________?
(HOME)PHONE__________?
KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________
CITY: _______________
STATE:______________
ZIP CODE: ____________
HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTING
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING__________?
IF THIS HOUSE IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________?
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________?
IF YOU HAVE A PET,
NAME OF PET: _____________?
KIND OF PETS: _____________?
HABITS
DO YOU SMOKE ______________ ?
DO YOU DRINK ______________?
DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT? ____?

very much Looking forward to hearing 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 about how to get the important document and the keys to you,please we are giving you all this based on trust of Jesus and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that we have not seen yet and only know in our hearts we are putting everything into Gods hands,so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this…

The house is available for rent at the moment so you are free to move in as soon as you wish to…A Deposit of $1500 (which happens to be the first months rent) is required before moving in…Feel free to call me for more information and arrangements on how to get the keys and other necessary documents delivered to you…my number is (+2348051039696 OR 0112348051039696).The house will be available for rent for a period of 4 years so you have a choice of deciding how long you intend staying there…

God Bless,
Dennis Latimer

The Martins smelled a scam. Not only the bad English and unlikely story, but also the fact that a stranger was asking for so much personal information. They decided to investigate a little further. Mrs. Martin had heard of the Nigerian scam before, and reread the Snopes description of the scam.

The Nigerian Scam

In the Nigerian scam, the goal is to get you to send money to Nigeria (or any other country). Usually, this is done by promising to send you a large sum of money, and a request that you send some of it to one of their contacts as an “administration fee” or something similar. If you send the money, they will continue to make excuses, meanwhile cashing every check you send until you are red in the face and realize the money they promised doesn’t exist.

Con artists are always thinking of new ways to scam people, and stories abound of the victims who have suffered losses from this sort of foolery.

Sure that this was a scam, Mrs Martin decided to return the bogus “application” with mostly made-up information, just to see what happened. (<em>Note: Be careful responding to obvious scammers – even if you don’t take the bait, your email will land on a “sucker’s” list used by international con artists. It’s just not worth announcing yourself.</em>)

In the meantime, she used the County assessor’s website to look up the real owner of the house. It was not Mr. Latimer. Additionally, the ISP address of the account the email originated in was from Ebene, Mauritius. Not Nigeria, Not Poland.

Hello Kristy Martin

Thanks for getting back to me the Rent Application Form. I just wanted to let you know that we have all agreeably decided to let you live in our beloved house. As we have duly found your application very satisfactory and acceptable by my family. So we would want you to go through this email of instructions and get back to us on what you feel about the matter, with the counsel of prayer, so we could proceed in renting the house to you.

We would like to send the following documents to you via UPS next day delivery to the address you sent to us in your application and the tracking number will also be sent to you so that you can possibly occupy our house very soon, Please once again, we are giving you this based on trust so please do not dissapoint us and i promise you that, you will love the house.We are with the underlisted documents here with us and you will need to make Payment for the first month’s Rent ($1500) to enable shippment of the Keys and documents to the address you have provided to us, afterwhich you could move in on any day at your best convenience. The rent starts counting when you move in, so you could go ahead with the payment straight away to make things faster, even if you’re not ready to move for one more month, in a case which you need to give notice at your current residence. This is important because we have relations in the area who are wanting to also move into this house and would also like to send payment soon…I think you will be pleased and I trust in the lord that you are called tobegin residing in the house very soon.

Here are the contents of the document that needs to be sent.

1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
2) Paper/Permanent house form
3) The house documetary file.
4) Full Description of the house
5) Payment Receipt
6) Signed Lease Agreement Form you are supposed to also sign and get it sent back to me. So please do get back to me today so that I will let know the next step to take concerning the payment….The house is available for rent for up to 4 years,so you are free to decide on how long you intend occupying it…Rent already includes utilities..

It has a Central Air and Heat,refrigerator,washer,dryer,oven,internet,Cable TV,Air conditioner..It also has a garage and i’m ready to accept either monthly or upfront mode of payment..depending on the one you’re most comfortable with..Utilities include: power, water,sewer and trash.. Your monthly rent already covers utilities so you do not have to pay extra charges for that.. Please note that the deposit made is fully refundable should in case you finally gain entrance to the house after receiving the keys and documents and feel unsatisfied or uncomfortable with the interior,but i am giving you a benefit of doubt that you will love everything about this lovely home…

Thanks and Remain Blessed,

Dennis Latimer

Kristy’s curiosity was quenched, she realized now that their intention was to have her deposit payment into their account, and keys may or may not have been mailed, but they probably wouldn’t have fit the house. She also noted that the con artist added a little “pressure sales tactic”, saying that other people were interested as well, so to hurry it along before this great deal passed.

To protect other renters, Kristy reported the listing to Craigslist, documented the ISP from his emails, and forwarded the information to the FBI.

The following day, this email was sent:

I expected your e mail to arrive last night in regards to my acceptance of letting you move in to my home,but i didnt hear back from you.I am quite hurt and I would still like to know whats going on regarding the rental fees and let me know how you want to proceed about the payment for the first month,so i could make the preparations of getting the keys of the home and documents to you. T

hanks and God Bless you

Dennis Latimer

Mrs. Martin blocked the ISP from her email provider and continued to look for a house to rent. A day later, she spotted a listing for the same house, with Dennis’ name at the bottom. She reported it to the website as a scam.

Later that day, she got a call from the real Dennis. He called from her area code and spoke English very well. This was definitely not the person who had sent those emails. She asked who the real homeowner was and was given the same name that the County assessor had listed.

Dennis Latimer had been a previous owner of this house, and his listing and pictures from a legitimate real estate website had been lifted and posted to Craigslist under a phony email address.

Luckily, the Martins found another house, listed by a real person, so this story ended happily.

Avoiding This Scam

Always use extreme caution when doing business on Craigslist or any similar site. Follow the instructional warning that Craigslist posts on the top of every ad that says “Avoid Scams by Dealing Locally.”

When looking for a place to rent, be aware of the following practices scammers use. Fortunately, most con artists are not very imaginative, and will follow the same script, allowing you to easily spot a fake.

If it’s too good to be true, it most certainly is fake
Google the address to see if there are similar listings.
Ask to get a tour of the rental unit before committing. A scammer will obviously be unable to provide that for you.
Always be on guard if the supposed owner is in another country, or emails you some formulaic and unlikely story
If you are moving from another city, stay in a hotel so you can easily find local listings.
Phone the local number to confirm, and/or drive by the house you are looking for and actually talk to the owners to make sure it is actually up for rent
The phone number on the spam email will usually be real, with a 3d party accomplice with a heavy accent answering.
If the house is empty, make sure it doesn’t have a lockbox – if it does, the house is actually for sale or is in the process of selling. This means the scammer knows the house is empty through a simple search in the local real estate listings, and set up the fake listing.
Often the letters will read with the assumption that you are unquestionably moving in
There is a sense of urgency or pressure in the letter for you to send your check

On the flip-side, if YOU are the person renting the house, and you get an email from oversees with a check or money order, ask the bank to notify you when the money clears. Scammers will often overpay you, then request a partial refund. They will pressure you, even threatening you, if you do not send them the refund immediately. What they are hoping for is that you send your money before their payment is found out to be fake. Be firm and don’t give in.