Sweet rental offer didn't pass gut checkBy Ron Menchaca (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wade Spees Adam Witty stands in front of his James Island condominium Wednesday. A potential renter responding to a Craigslist posting asked Witty to write a check to a third party who was to have decorated the unit for the renter. An overseas call to a phone number on the potential renter's e-mail triggered an alarm for Witty. Adam Witty of Charleston considers himself a cautious person. He runs a book publishing company and is versed in the adage that something that sounds too good to be true, probably is. So when Witty recently posted a James Island condo unit for rent on the popular classified ad Web site Craigslist and received an e-mail from a man outside the country wanting to rent the unit for two years, he was skeptical. "I'm probably more diligent and cautious than most people. It didn't sit right in my gut." The man said his name was "Weaser Kent" and that his employer in the United Kingdom was relocating him to Charleston. Kent said he would send along a check to cover the security deposit and a month's rent. He just had one request: Would Witty mind deducting the money owed and forwarding the balance on to a third party, an interior decorator who would be sprucing up the condo. "You will forward the rest to the Decorators so I can have the place all prepared for my arrival," wrote the man. When Witty called the international phone number Kent listed in his e-mail, a man with a thick African accent answered. "I could barely understand him, and he could barely understand me," Witty said. Witty told the man he wasn't comfortable writing a check to someone else and that he would first need a rental agreement completed. That's when Kent became evasive, and that was the last Witty heard from him. Witty said his internal alarm went up, and he went public with what happened in hopes of preventing others from falling prey to the scam. Chris Hadley with the Better Business Bureau in Columbia said the scam contains some of the classic elements of fraud: A great-sounding deal, someone out of the country, and a request for money to be sent or wired to a third party. Hadley said his office has not yet heard of the scam using Craigslist, but he plans to alert his staff about it. The worst part about such scams is that banks will sometimes cash the check before it is flagged as bogus. By then, the victim may have already forwarded a legitimate check to a third party. "The victim is left holding the bag," Hadley said. Similar scams involving Craigslist are popping up around the country. Authorities in Portland, Ore., recently discovered a scheme in which people posted "for rent" ads based on details from legitimate home listings in the area in hopes of duping potential renters into providing financial information or cash deposits. Two men were recently arrested in California after they were caught posing as landlords of a vacant home they had broken into and posting it for rent on Craigslist. Police found evidence that the men had collected thousands of dollars in rent and security deposits from people who thought they were renting the home. It appears nothing is sacred, not even the war dead. Authorities in Michigan are investigating a recent posting on Craigslist that offered to sell a car owned by a U.S. soldier whose remains were discovered in Iraq last week after a year-long search. A representative for Craigslist could not be reached for comment on any of the recent scams. But the company offers tips and warnings on its Web site that, if followed, would highlight most dubious posts and inquiries. Reach Ron Menchaca at rmenchaca@postandcourier.com or 937-5724. |
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Comments
This article has 7 comment(s)
Posted by LocalHero on July 24, 2008 at 6:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've listed various things for sale via Craigslist as well as several rentals. I regularly get scam responses which are usually of the same nature...someone wanting to pay me more than I'm asking and then have me wire the extra money to a third person. Often the English is mangled in the email to a point of being funny. There's a couple of websites that highlight the game of scamming the scammers back:
http://thescambaiter.com/
http://www.419eater.com/index.htm
Careful, it's a Wild, Wild Web out there!
Posted by iceman1978 on July 24, 2008 at 11:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Classic scam. If I had a nickel for every time I've gotten these on my work e-mail..well, let's just say I would be much better off. They send you a check based on a non-existent account for much more than the amount owed, and then they want you to write a check to a third party (someone in on it) for the difference.
If it were me I would require the following:
1) Reference from previous landlord/landlady.
2) Security deposit, First & last months rent paid in advance either by money wire or through Pay Pal. Any additional that they wish to pay will be credited to furture rent payments. If they want to make arrangements for an interior decorator, etc then they can pay them seperately. I am a landowner who is renting you a place to stay, not a financial institution. Check is ok only after cleared.
Posted by 5thGenerationLocal on July 24, 2008 at 11:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
WOW, way to go Nancy Drew. What the hell? Did you just crawl out from under a rock? This has been going on for years. P&C, you should be ashamed for thinking that this is newsworthy. I call it survival of the fittest. You get conned, you have just proven your worth. That worth is very little.
Move along.
Posted by CedarPosts on July 25, 2008 at 12:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Got the same call last year.
I figured a scam and elected to play a reverse scam on the crook.
She sent a check for 5k with the idea I'd send the excess 3k to them via wire transfer. I offered a money order and sure enough they took the bait. She wanted the money order sent via FedEx, of course I could deduct the FedEx costs from the money order, how nice of her.
The address she wanted the money sent to was in Kansas City, so I told her the check was in the mail.
A dozen phone calls later she is freaking out, the FedEx letter has not arrived. I told her the letter couldn't be delivered but that it was being held at nearby office building.
I gave her general directions and asked that she call when she got nearby.
Sure enough the call came.
So I gave the crook the address, 1300 Summit Street.
I guess she was pretty upset with me because 1300 Summit Street just happens to be the western district office of the FBI.
Funny she never called back!
Posted by lillycollette on July 25, 2008 at 8:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
-- AMAZING! --
There are over 1,700 articles on the topic of fraud in this newspaper’s archives—and not one of those articles is on frauds committed inside the family court system by officers of the court!
Posted by CedarPosts on July 25, 2008 at 7:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow Lilly strikes again. Coming out of left field where they sell the NUTS!
Posted by lillycollette on July 26, 2008 at 6:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I haven’t played any ‘reverse scam’ games with frauds. How NUTTY is that.
I don’t have any respect for frauds—and I have questions about this paper’s lack of coverage on an arena of fraud that can affect a large number of our citizens. How NUTTY is that.
(Note the lack of question marks.)
Geepers -- I just don’t feel any need to justify my “opinion” in relation to this article / the paper to anyone. Go figure.