Scammers and Craigslist......sigh

[jw]

Ok, well I decided to try and sell my house I live in now without a realtor in the beginning. It will be 6+ months before the new house is done so I have some time to waste and I dont wanna have to move twice.
SO, I decided to throw together a website to sell the home, I placed a sign in the yard and have been using services like fsbo.org and forsalebyowner.com as well as craigslist.
So I have had the home for sale for over a month, I have had a few showings and interest, however this week really peaked for some odd reason. We have had people stopping, checking it out in droves. I finally got a smart person who actually called me and explained my house was placed for rent by a Nigerian scammer, using my name and property address.
I would say I was shocked but I would be lying as I have dealt with the scams that come with using craigslist before but this one tops the cake. I did an IP check on the email the guy replied from and sure enough, it came from Nigeria. I am waiting for a Uhaul to show up and people expect to move in. Boy will they be pissed!
Here is the rental application, Its so shotty it doesnt even list source of income:

Subject: Re: $950 / 4br - single family home to let (Winchester, VA 22601)

Thanks for your interest in our house.

Firstly i will like to introduce myself, I am an Engineer by profession (retired) originally from Tallahasse FL. I and my wife acquired the house recently and decided to rent out the house but due to our busy schedule,and the fact that we are retired we decided to go on a 3 years voluntary missionary trip in association with Christ embassy to Lagos Nigeria (West Africa).We are looking for a responsible people that can take good care of the house in our absence. Our house is still available for rent and the house rent includes all utilities

Please we want you to note that we are kind and honest people,we will want you to take absolute care of our house,we want you to keep it tidy all the time so that we will be glad to see it neat whenever we visit.So if you are really interested in the house, we will want you to fill out the rent application form below.

RENTAL APPLICATION
The undersigned hereby makes an application to rent the following property:*** ********* Dr Winchester, VA 22601

Anticipated move in date of_9/01/2010____at a monthly rent of $950 and the term of tenancy will be renewed automatically every year or monthly.

TENANT INFORMATION
Jack Tripper_______________________
_______
Phone (_540____)____931-8000_________________
Other Phone (___540__)___931-7853_____________________
Age__33________________________
Marital status____Single_______________
Do you have a pet_____Yes______________________________

Do you have a car___Yes___________________________________
How many people will be living in the house____2_______________________

PREVIOUS RESIDENCE INFORMATION

1) Previous Address__2 N Kent St __________________________________________________ __
City:___Hollywood _________________________ State :___CA ___________ Zip:__90003______________
Length of occupancy_______2years______________
Landlord's Name:_______Mr. Roper _______________________________
Phone (_540____)_662-4131______________________
Reason for leaving___Bigger home__________________________________________________ __
Rent Payment $____1050.00___________

Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that we can have it in our file for record purposes. We are waiting your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the house documents and the keys to you. NOTE:The keys and documents of our house are here with us in west Africa, please we are giving you the house based on trust.

You will only be able to drive by the house for now but you will not have access into the house until we have sent the keys and documents of the house to you
Please note that your rent starts counting from move in date so you need not to worry about making the deposit payment now and not moving in immediately because all you're doing is securing the house in your favor in order not to loose it to other interested applicants.

YOU CAN CONTACT US ON +234-7043138861 or 011 2347043138861

Thanks And God Bless You

Remain blessed

Heres my approval, I submitted bogus info and was approved, Now I am waiting the keys to my own house from this bozo

Thanks for your interest in my house.

I and my wife read your application together,we are very happy to tell you that you have been accepted for the house.From your email we know and believe that you are the right person to occupy our house.We will like you to know that, it is not the money that really matters to us but that our house be taking proper care of that is why we made the house so inexpensive because i believe everybody deserves a home both the rich and the poor.I hope you understand where I'm coming from.



We will be gone for 3 years if the house is clean by the time we come back we will continue renting it out to you because we are always on missionary trips so it depends on how long you would like to stay and the house rent will not be increased for the 3 years.I hope it's okay by you.



However,if you are ready to rent the house now, then that will not be a problem but I will advice you to be a responsible person like you promised to be. You will have to make one month rent payment and i would like to send the following document to you via the DHL so give me an address to send it to and the tracking number will be sent to you so that you can possible occupy my house. 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.



So i am with the below document here with me and i will like to know whether you are ready for the payment one month rent now which is $950 so that the keys and the below items can be sent to you.

Here are the contents of the document;


Entrance and the rooms Keys


Paper/Permanent house form(Containing your reference details)


The house documentary file


Payment Receipt

Get back to us on how and when to make the rent payment.


Thanks and hope to hear from you soon.

Remain blessed

Moral to this story is never send money without viewing a property first. I am sure someone will get scammed if not by this another one out there. They are sneaky, however if he had a clue he would know my rental stuff was from Three's Company

[jw]

Oh yea, and if you guys dont mind, can you flag this as inappropriate or spam. Its the ad hes using

http://winchester.craigslist.org/apa/1908876223.html
He stole the description from my listing, I have no idea where the pics are from. Thats not my kitchen.

[Mr. J]

Wow, thats sad. Just flagged it for ya

[Dexter Morgan]

I am sorry, but if you fall for something like that... Flagged for ya.

[LeAnn]

Man! I am sorry to see that!
My coworker was interested in a house that she found out was being scammed from a realtor site. She was driving up to look at the house and actually ran into the REAL realtor.

[Musashi]

I myself had a scammer attempt to swipe my old TV I've been trying to sell on craigs. His first email seemed off; Bad grammar, dry tone, no evidence that he even knows what the item is. To attempt verifying, I write back, saying that I accept cash or PayPal only, and require a meeting in person first, then I suggested the Barnes and Noble at the mall for the meeting place. He writes back, claiming "Certified check is the only way I can for it." and "I can't meet with you because I have a seminar in Iowa". I thought, "A seminar in Iowa. With no date specified. Cute." So I wrote back one more time: "You are a scammer; kindly turn yourself in to the police. kthxbye"

[PrivatePixel]

Tenant Jack Tripper and landlord Mr. Roper

[Glassroots]

3 year missions trip, such a humanatarian you are.

[brettallica]

I hope Janet and Chrissy are OK with this arrangement.

[Septimus Prime]

Three's Company took place in Santa Monica, liar.

[Show spoiler]

[jw]

Originally Posted by Septimus Prime

Three's Company took place in Santa Monica, liar.

[Show spoiler]

lol, I could have said I reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, That dude didnt have a clue, I was approved regardless

[Skunkape78]

That's hilarious... You gotta love people trying to get one over on someone for cash... Great application by the way...

Not sure if I can post links to other forums, but here's a hilarious(well, it made me laugh) thread from Florida Sportsman where a guy has a little fun with a scammer... It's a lot to read, but it's freakin' funny...

http://archives.floridasportsman.com...n-mcgillicuddy

[silversnake]

Nice one!

[Blu-Benny]

that's crazy!!!

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by Skunkape78

It's a lot to read, but it's freakin' funny...

http://archives.floridasportsman.com...n-mcgillicuddy

You weren't kidding about it being a lot to read...... but it was well worth it!!!!

[Heavytoka]

Wow, that's nuts! I would laugh so hard if someone pulled up to my house in a Uhaul thinking they were moving in. I used to live in Berryville Va and I'm pretty sure some people there would believe a rental application like that lol

[Skunkape78]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

You weren't kidding about it being a lot to read...... but it was well worth it!!!!

It sucks that it was archived and the pictures removed... Here's the guy's site with the same stuff, it has a few of the pics..

http://www.captainmcgillicuddy.com/

[Dexter Morgan]

Originally Posted by Skunkape78

That's hilarious... You gotta love people trying to get one over on someone for cash... Great application by the way...

Not sure if I can post links to other forums, but here's a hilarious(well, it made me laugh) thread from Florida Sportsman where a guy has a little fun with a scammer... It's a lot to read, but it's freakin' funny...

http://archives.floridasportsman.com...n-mcgillicuddy

That was effing hilarious!

[crash12928]

This exact person just tryed to scam me and my GF. We recently moved to rutland and are looking for an apartment and decided to check out craigslist and we recived an email from a person with that exact application. we filled it out and then went to go look at the place. when we got home 20min later we had an email from them saying we where excepted and to send the first months rent of $800 to have the keys and info sent to us. when we asked to see it first thats when it started to seam fishy. We are 20 and 18 so we dont have experience with this kind of stuff. i plan to report this and i hope this guy gets F**ked hard! 18 Clark st....wow what a nice house though.

[jw]

Hes from Nigeria, If you take the IP header and do a back trace it comes up as Nigeria...Nothing the US authorities can do about it.