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House Rental scam? My husband and I are moving to Denver, CO in August and I'm currently on a home search. I came across this ad and am pretty interested. Denver single family house For Rent - 3 bedrooms in Cherry Creek Here is the email I sent to the guy: Message from Leanna Lofte in reply to '1085 S Garfield Street, 3 beds, 3.0 baths, 2 sqft.' Email: ------------ Phone: ------------ Comments: Hi there. My husband and I aren't planning to move until the weekend of August 22, but I am very interested in this house. We will both be attending DU as graduate students in mathematics this fall. I have a few questions. The site says the house is 2 sq feet... I know that must be a typo ;) It also says it is furnished. Is this correct? What furniture is included and would you be able to send pictures of each room? Would you be willing to wait until August? We have 2 dogs. A 3 pound Yorkshire terrier and a 20 pound miniature schnauzer. They are both potty trained and well behaved. Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you. Please contact by email. Here is the response I got: Hello, Thanks for the interest in my house., The house is still available. Actually, i am currently in Africa with my wife for some contract with Exxon Mobil Corporation as a project consultant and has since been posted to their West Africa regional office. I had wanted to sell the house but my wife talked me out of it and so we are now renting it out. I am currently on a 2-year contract, hence, the lease will be available for as long as this period or even more because negotiations are already going on between my contractors and I for a possible contract extention. I will advice that you go and take a look at the house and its surrounding, but for now you cannot see the interior until the keys are sent to you because we have the keys here with us. If you are still interested in the house email me back and I will send you the rental form to fill. Please e-mail me the following information to help speed up the process: Income per year: Credit Score: My regards. C. Busby. Phone: 011-234-708-447-0826. With all the scams I've read on here about yorkies, I'm now concerned this may also be a scam. Has anyone heard of these kinds of scams? The add looks very legit and detailed. I am kinda annoyed that he didn't answer any of my questions. I could picture sending the deposit with the "agreement" of getting the keys after the deposit is received... and never getting the keys. I currently live in CA so I cant just go look at the house and neighborhood. We will be flying to Denver for a couple days in July to do our final home shopping and hopefully sign a lease. I am going to write him back and ask if there is anyone he trusts in Denver that he could send the keys to so I could see the house then. I will not agree to rent this house without first seeing it and knowing that there is indeed keys to it. What do you guys think? |
Sounds like it... I would contact a Realtor. |
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it is a scam. I saw this scam a couple of times before on rental houses. |
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Well atleast their not in Africa on a church event! LOL. I assume you can't see the inside until you get the keys, you won't get the keys until you pay first/last month rent, or some sort of deposit, then you never get the keys. I can't believe how people are scamming with everything now, this is really sick. |
With the housing market what it is today many people have tried to sell their homes without much luck so now they are trying to rent. It is difficult to figure out if this is a scam or not but it almost looks to good to be true. |
Hmmm...it doesn't appear to me that English is their first language - as they wrote things like "I will advice you" rather than "I will advise you" - which would be a common language mistake (vs. just a simple spelling mistake). If you're really interested in the house and still think it may be legitimate, I'd tell them that you'd like to pursue - but would like a more formal process since they're so far away - so, could they use a realtor, friend, or neighbor who could have a copy of the keys and etc etc....and see what they say from there... |
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Sounds fishy to me but it may very well be legitimate. Please keep your guard up...I'd hate for you or anyone else get scammed. |
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Let the search continue! |
I think it would be Wise to atleast contact a Realitor better to be safe thatn out your hard earned money. Also maybe someone here can check it out for you if they live close by? |
Sounds like a scam to me. |
definitely sounds like a scam...I live like 5-10 min away from that location. |
Ok check this out. Here's a "vacation home" ad my mom just found ~~Denver's Premier Vacation or Corporate Rental Sleeps 12~~ - denver vacation - backpage.com It's the same house. This seems like the legit ad. There is also a broker on this ad... who would obviously have keys to the place. Here is the email I just sent him: Thank you for the quick response! However, you did not answer any of my questions. What is the square footage of the house? What furniture is included and could you send me photos of each room? Am I allowed to have dogs? If so, what is the pet limit? I am a bit concerned about you being out of the country. You said I would be unable to see the house until you sent me the keys? I am not comfortable renting a house without seeing it first. Is there anyone you trust that lives in Denver whom you could send the keys to so that they could show me the house? Also, how long has the house been a rental and how many tenants have you had? Were the previous residents smokers? Are you planning to secure a property management firm to care for the needs of the house; I feel it is important to have a local contact person should something arise. Also, with you being out of the country, what would be the method of payment? If we are to rent from you, we would initially take out a 1 year lease and see what happens from there. We will be in grad school for about 5 years, so we may choose to stay in the house longer. I will send you my income info and credit score once I decide if I want to further pursue this rental. Thank you, Leanna Lofte |
I have a vacation house that I rent out on Maryland's Eastern Shore, with legitimate sites on vacation rental sites. THIS sounds like someone could possibly be pretending to be the owner. If you were in Africa, you wouldn't have the keys, you'd have an agent in U.S. So, say they rent it from the owners, act like the owners and send you the keys. My best friend lives in South Africa, but I get more scams from people overseas than I do real renters. I'd say SCAM. There are legit rental agencies in most cities that have agents working for owners. The owners pay the agent's fee to show the house, maintenance,etc. |
I think it is a scam. Scam artist will do anything to get your $. Check out this web site where people turn the tables on the scammers. http://www.419eater.com (419 is the law code for a scam) It just goes to show what lengths scammers will go to scam you. If you do a google search for house rental scan Africa you will come up with alot of info, including this article: West African rental scam targets Juneau residents By Alan Suderman June 1st, 2008 For a month and a half, Amyanna Bryan said her daily routine involved checking the Internet for a reasonable place to rent in town. Recently, she said she thought she found one. Listed on the Web site Craigslist was a three-bedroom house in the Mendenhall Valley for $1,000 a month. There was only one problem: The house wasn't for rent. The ad on Craigslist was a scam, being run half a world away. Juneau has joined the swelling ranks of U.S. cities that have caught the eye of West African scam artists trying to rent houses they don't own. Sean Henderson, the owner of Assist-2-Sell real estate company, said four different potential renters have expressed interest in houses he has listed in recent weeks. He said the information he had posted on Craigslist trying to sell houses had been repackaged by the scam artists and posted on Craigslist as a rental property. The scammers told the unsuspecting renters to send them private information and a deposit in exchange for the keys to the place, Henderson said. "It's pretty blatant, in terms of what they are asking for," he said, adding that he had discontinued posting properties on Craigslist until the Web site fixes the problem. Henderson stressed that sellers are not at risk, and it's only potential renters who face getting fleeced. Efforts to reach representatives from Craigslist were unsuccessful, but on its Web site the company tells its users to "deal locally with folks you can meet in person" to avoid the majority of scam attempts. Bryan said that after she responded to the ad on Craigslist she received an e-mail back from someone who alternately called him or herself Cindy and Kelvin Jackson. The e-mail said he or she was doing missionary work in West Africa and owned the home Bryan was interested in renting. The e-mail asked for Bryan to answer a few questions, including her full name, age, address and occupation. Bryan said she thought the e-mail sounded "really nice" and responded with the requested information. She got an e-mail back telling her the house was hers and asking for a payment for sending her the keys. "Please once again, we are giving you this on trust and do not disappoint us and i promise you that, you will love the house," the e-mail said. But Bryan never sent the money. She visited the house with her mother and saw that the house was furnished and looked occupied, complete with a dog and cat in the backyard. It also had a "For Sale" sign in the yard. When she called Assist-2-Sell she found out the house had never been listed for rent and she was a potential victim of a scam. A call to the cell phone listed at the bottom of the e-mails sent to Bryan, which had a Nigerian country code, did not work. Bryan said Juneau residents need to be aware that they aren't immune to scams perpetuated from a distance. "Be very careful," Bryan said. "If you get a bad feeling, go with it." Sgt. David Campbell of the Juneau Police Department agreed. "Like anywhere else, there's a potential for fraud," he said. "People need to remain vigilant." He said it's tough to account for how many people in town may have fallen victim to these kinds of real estate scams because fraud victims are often embarrassed to come forward. He said the best way to avoid potential scams of this sort is to rely on local experts, such as real estate agents and banks, and to use a healthy dose of skepticism when eyeing a bargain deal on the Internet. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is," he said. |
i think it's a scam. beware. they most likely told you they were in africa b/c that's where they want the money wired too. run away from this one! |
Oh, I'm pretty sure it's a scam. I sent him another email out of curiosity of what he would say... I'm especially interested on his choice method of payment. I will probably call the people on the other ad about the vacation home because this one seems like a real ad. ...at least they have paypal... I want to inform them that someone is using their house as a scam. |
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Let us know how it goes. |
If they don't bother having a property manager, then it's a scam. I'd NEVER rent out my home to someone sight unseen, what if they tore the place up? On the other side, if something needed repair, how would that get done without a local property manager? Even if this wasn't a scam (and it IS), you'd be screwed when it came to any problems with the house. Keep looking:D! |
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