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 Post subject: Same thing different twist
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:16 am 
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Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:40 am
Posts: 1
I own an apartment building and recently had a vacant unit. I posted the unit as available with a local college and received an email a day or two later. The email stated the individual was from the UK and was coming to the school for graduate work. Numerous emails were exchange with info regarding the unit and the rent requirements. I told the individual that I needed $595 (the security deposit) to hold the unit. They literally begged me to hold the unit as her father was on business in the Netherlands and it would take a few dys for her to get word to her father and he to his accountant. A week went by and I notified the person I was putting the unit back on the market as I had not received a check. Again the reply was a very emotional please do not rent to anyone else and I complied. A day or so later I did get a cashier's check for $3,200, along with a letter from the father's accountant telling me that the "student" would be on her way to Minneapolis in just a few days. Obviously my next email asked what in the world $3,200 represented as $595 in no way goes into it equally, assuming they were paying a few months in advance. I also started the process of asking how much she knew about the area, was there anyone she knew, did she know about dealing with the power company for an account, and etc. We went back and forth for the next hour or so as she asked questions about all the things I brought up to her.
Shortly there after I received another email regarding the $3,200 and was told the accountant had made a mistake and sent not only the money for the deposit and the first month's rent but had mistakenly sent the money she requested for airfare to the states. So would I please deduct the rent particulars and send the difference immediately back to her via Western Union. I probably would not have hesitated except the address for the Western Union situation was Nigeria and I had heard of scams from there before. I immediately took the check to my bank and requested to meet with the branch manager. He then called the bank represented on the cashiers check and found it to be fraudulant. I then called the University and asked if they had a student with the name I had been communicating with and they told me NO.
I decided I wanted to have some fun, so I wrote my prospective tenant and told her she had a problem and better contact the university immediately. I told her I had called the school to tell them I had rented the unit and would they please remove it from their website and they in-turn had asked me who the student was and discovered she was not registered. I figured that would be my last contact, but, believe it or not I got an email a few hours later telling me she had unfortunate news for me. She had received a scholarship from a school in London and had withdrawn her registration at the school here in Minnesota. So would I please deduct $200 for my inconveniences and send the remaining $3,000 back to her immediately. I was amazed that the university situation I confronted them with did not send them running but now they actually were requesting even more money. I waited a day or two and got an email asking me for a staus report on the money being returned. I told them that I had deposited the money but needed to wait 4-5 weeks to see if the funds cleared. Believe it or not that didn't bother them they simply wrote back they would wait.
When I saw the report on Channel 4 news here in the Twin Cities regarding the incident with the car on Ebay I immediately felt I had to tell you my story as this all took place in the past 3 weeks. These people are amazing. It obviously onl takes a few hits for them to make a considerable amount of money. I did go on the internet and found a posting on a website stating the same scam as mine. I am glad some red flags went up with me on the Western Union situation or my compassion would have made me a victime easily.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:26 pm 
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Site Admin/Co-Founder

Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 10:09 pm
Posts: 2921
I am so glad to hear that you did not become a victim to this scam.

For the rest of you who would like to see the report that was mentioned in the above story, here is the link

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_214103548.html

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