Looking to rent, SCAM?

[SkiFree]

Hi guys,
My wife and I are looking at a few places to move into, and we found one and we really like (drove by, peeked in like a couple creepers, etc.). The rent asking price isn't out of line for the going rate in the area, and everything sees legit, but the email response we got today made me a little worried.

So in short,
- drove by house, it is actually for rent.
- price within reason for area.


I need r3v's input here as I'm blinded by enthusiasm.
----------------------------------------------------------

Hello ,

Thanks for the mail,I am looking for responsible tenants that he/she is going to take care of the House as if it were your own and he/she will be willing to make the Property clean as we left it and I have been transferred by my company to our quarters in Ohio USA and won't be coming back until two years and that means you are renting the Property for long term , short term or lease is also acceptable. You can easily drive down there to take a look at the exterior of the house and for the interior you cannot see it because we are with the keys and document of the house here in Ohio USA . It's not all about the money but I want you to keep it tidy all the time so that we will be glad to see it neat and clean when ever we visit . You can stay in the house as long as you wish because we already own another house here(Ohio USA) and we will buy another house when we return home.I also want you to let me have trust in you as I always stand on my words.

The rent payment per month includes the utilities such as Water .I am with the keys and the neccessary document meant for the House and the reason is that i am tried to find an agent but couldn't see a trustworthy agent that was why I would love you to get back to me on how you can keep my house clean and your experience with renting my Property. I look forward to hearing from you ASAP so fill out Application form , and also are you ready to rent it now or when? I am sending you the tenant Application form to fill, I will be expecting you to fill it in with your correct informations, because the Information providing will be used to prepare the document that will be sent to you along with the keys the House is available and the rent is $1150 and the deposit payment is $1000.


TENANT RENT APPLICATION FORM : ***** Lane Pomona, CA 91768



Phone Number: *********
MARKETING MANAGER SHELL
Thornville OH USA

[ST1G]

That there is very much a scam.

How long between the email you sent to the email you received?

What email address did the response come from?

How fast was the return email, from when you sent the email?

What email did you send them?

Read it again and notice the wording, the language. It doesn't sound right, the sentences are formatted weird like english was their second language or they are the youngest home owner in America.


This stands out to me as being just horribly obvious that its not real.

"The rent payment per month includes the utilities such as Water .I am with the keys and the neccessary document meant for the House and the reason is that i am tried to find an agent but couldn't see a trustworthy agent that was why I would love you to get back to me on how you can keep my house clean and your experience with renting my Property."

Note: Misspellings, words are capitalized that we don't capitalize in English. Punctuation is off. Run on sentences

I'm also assuming that they didn't mention anything specific that you asked about in your first email to them, unless you asked "Is it still 4 rent"


This happened to me one time, found a house for sale, looked at it, had a "for rent" sign in the yard, but not really any information. Peaked in, it was empty though it would be a great house.

Went home googled the address, pulled up a CL add. Seemed legit, photos of the house's exterior as well as an address.

Emailed them.

Got back a response that the guys owned the house and just moved to NY so the house was for rent, but he would be more then willing to rent it but everything would need to be done via email.

Still seemed OK, kinda shady, but it was a nice house so I said that was okay.

Got an email back that before anything was done I needed to "fill out an application" and send a $200 housing deposit via moneygram. That email came in within 20 seconds of sending my reply to the first email, that tipped me off, as well as the fact that the email address it was coming from wasn't the real email. I looked at the address deeper in my mac mail and discovered it was coming from some obscure website. Also, the application had my SSN on it.

needless to say, I set up a rule to automatically deliver mail from that address to the trash can.

[SkiFree]

Fair enough then, funny what you'll believe when you really want to.

The email didn't come until a couple days later. our initial inquiry was through one of those renter websites.

[kickinindian]

yes my mom tried to rent a place with some wording like that and she drove by to check it out it was for sale and the guy was there moving out and she had told him she saw "his" ad on CL and he said it was not for rent it was for sale, and he had not posted it on CL.

soooo if it sounds too good it probably is an african prince, wanting to give you money to rent the house he lived in before he moved back to china while he is on deployment to afghanistan, after his grandpa died and left him inheritance.

[joncrz]

common scam. They dont have keys next step is that they will ask for a deposit of some sort and they will release the keys. You will be out that money. I have read of some cases where the renter actually handed them keys that openend the door but wasnt his house. They move in and the confusion starts. Be careful.

Also misspells are big red flag.