The Apartment Listing Response Scam

The number of scams on the Internet and elsewhere is outrageous. In more recent years, more sites have appeared to help expose all the scams. The more sites to fight scams the better. So, we are posting scams that we encounter.

This recent scam was a hassle. I was able to catch on to it before they succeeded. I have a lot of experience with scammers so it is hard to fool me.

I am a property manager for my property. I have recently posted listing for potential tenants for my vacant unit. The following is the reply that came. Please note that the email was in very poor grammar and text format. However, this site requires proper formatting, so I had to actually change the format to have the article published.

"Hello,

I am Dr.Randi Kerin from the United Kingdom, i will be coming to the states by the middle of september and i need a conducive apartment that i will be living for the whole year. I want you to get back to me if the one you advertised here is still available. I will be signing a one year lease for you apartment and will be staying alone with my wife and daughter. I will really appreciate a quick response to my inquiry. "

I responded and the following was his response.

"Thanks for your mail, I am indeed serious about renting this home and will be willing to offer you month is rent plus the security deposit in order to secure this unit prior to our arrival. I'm okay with the conditions of the rooms and the charges. Could you be kind enough to let me know what the electricity/utility cost would be as i will really need to have this unit to myself. You can send me the lease application, to enable be review it ahead of
time. I would eventually have it signed physically when i arrive. In my opinion, appending signatories should be done properly and at best
physically. Please, send me a picture view of the living room and bedrooms. You don't need to worry yourself about the landscaping(the home will be well-maintained). This is an international situation. With this arrangement, my financier in the states, will be effecting your payment deposit to you. I believe we can work together and ensure every arrangements that we shall both execute in line with my taking up the tenancy should be done accordingly to ensure we have a proper understanding.

In view of my work schedule, I would want us to finalize basic arrangements. I will arrive the United States by the middle of September, with my wife and daughter. If you require any specific information, please let me know or you can call me on my cell phone +447045741262, please dial as presented for international calls .

My due regards,
Dr. Randy Kerin
+447045741262"

Things about these messages are suspicious. I continued to respond though. The next reply was the following.

"Hello Erik,
I am happy to read from you once again. I will like to use a Cable TV and High-Speed internet so that i can get more channels, I have already ordered for new mattress, I don't think we will need the one you mentioned. I appreciate your wanting to help us in our situation. I am a chemist by profession and I am currently working with NORTHWICK PARK & ST.MARK'S HOSPITAL, 17 WATFORD ROAD, HARROW, MIDDLESEX, LONDON . I will be in the States for the next one year with my wife and nine year old daughter and during my stay I will be working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency on a private research work. We have a financier that is based in the States and he will be handling the rent deposit payment on our behalf, we will instruct him to transfer the funds to you as soon as you give us the go ahead to make payment to you.

Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival, we are making arrangements with a furniture company to supply the home with furniture, so we will need you to provide us with the measurements of the living room and bedroom so that we can send it to the furniture company so that they can supply the unit with furniture that will fit in well.

As regards the lease agreement,i want you to send it to me for my review, I will eventually have it filled and signed on my arrival in your place as I am of the opinion that such documents are best filled and signed physically. We can start the lease by the Mid of September and we will be doing a one year lease. You can prepare the lease in my my name Dr. Randy Kerin and my wife's name Mrs. Nancy Kerin

Let us know how to move ahead as we intend to complete this deal before we move in by the Mid of the month, we will let you know the exact date as soon as we get a booking on a flight to the States.

Thanks and sincere regards from me and my family
Randy Kerin
"

I continued to reply to the messages. The next one starts to really confuse me as he mentions the use of MY credit card account:

"Hello,
Thanks for getting back tome with the application, I will eventually have it filled and signed on our arrival to the state. I will be more than happy to produce any information needed. Also regarding the measurements I have given it to the agent in charge of the furnitures and I'm sure they will make furnitures that will fit in well, it will be eventually delivered before we get down there so I will like you to please handle the delivery of the furnitures for us. I want you to tell me the total move-in cost that you require to secure this home. I want you to get back tome asap so that in can inform my financier to transfer the funds to your credit card account, hope you have one, it's very safe and fast. Please get back to me asap.
"

And then the real bomb:

"Hello Erik,
I am okay with paying $1875, the furnitures will be delivered as soon as possible, I want to have you paid for the home before I can make any further arrangement so I think it should be delivered early next week, I'll tell you the exact date as soon as I'm sure...About the payment the first month and security deposit($1875) will be payed by credit card, to eliminate any fear you can withdraw funds from the card before giving me the information, also the transfer does not require your full info like the cvv, expiry date etc, the informations needed are: Name of the card holder, Issuing bank Name, Issuing Bank Address, Card Number, Limit ON card, Type OF Card, Bank Address.

Please get back to me as soon as possible
Randy."

I ended up saying that I would only accept a check written out to my company. He then said he would rather deal with me personally. I said I would only accept it through the company again, and he responded saying "ok, I'll send the check out"

I assume I will not hear anything else from here on. I was already surprised how much work went into this. However, there are some specifics of how I spotted this scam.

1. Sense of urgency - coming to the states within the next 2 weeks with no place set to live?
2. Use of the term "financier" - considering he was Asian living in London, I thought maybe it was a bad translation, but still a red flag
3. He wanted bank info - major red flag. Never ever give it out. In this case, it really didn't make sense, but he tried.
4. I tracked the IP address from the emails. There are many ways to do this depending on how you check your email. Search "view email headers with __enter email program here__" in Google and you can find a result.
5. IP address trackers can be found online too. These emails seem to have come from Chicago and Los Angelos. That seems very weird, because his English was so bad, I can't seem him actually being located in the states. However, he may have tried to cover up his origin. Either way, a legitimate email would come from the location that he said he was located.
6. a gmail.com email account name. If he was really a doctor, why does he still use a free email? Not a for sure red flag, but something to look for.
7. I was certain by this time that it was a scam. I moved on to investigate his current place of work. Yes, it does exist. I could have contacted the hospital, but i noticed one of the Google results said something about a scam. It turns out, the exact same thing has been sent to others. This one was from 8 months ago. It was a chemist coming to the states very soon with his wife and daughter.... same story.

Other things I noticed:

1. He said he would be working for the Environmental Protection Agency. Very generic, and our government which could make you feel safer about the situation.
2. He never really said where he would be working. My place was in Columbus, Ohio. He never said that this was the city it needed to move to.
3. He said he has a 9-year-old daughter, but was never concerned with the school district.

Keep an eye out for this type of scam. Post scams that you have experienced.