ultimate scam against landlord

[WOODY]

I have a condo for rent in Grand Rapids, MI and I have it listed on Craig's list. I received an email from a "Dr. Moreno" in England stating he would like to rent the condo for a year, would pay the rent and deposit prior to his arrival, and could I please arrange to accept delivery of the furniture he had ordered.
No problem right? He states that the furniture company will be getting a hold of me to get room dimensions etc.... which they do with poor English on a rather unprofessional email. Continued correspondence with the Dr. reinforces the transaction and he states he would like to forward the rent/deposit plus the amount for the furniture and could I forward the money to the furniture company. Hmmmm. This thing starts to not pass the smell test. I ask the Dr. to please forward a copy of his medical license, diploma and a number for his clinic in the UK, my request is ignored and I receive a copy of an international ID, Hmmmm I email the furniture company and ask for their fax number to fax them a floor plan for the condo-reply states their fax is "down". Google turns up nothing on the furniture company.The Dr states that the certified funds will arrive Friday.
So my best guess is that the funds will be a counterfeit money order /cashiers check, They get me to deposit/cash it and if I dont get busted (or am dumb enough to forward funds before they clear because its "secure" funds)they have me forward the certified funds to their "furniture friends" No risk to them, maybe the check is for 3000 rent and 7000 for furniture, they make 7 grand and never have to try and pass the funny money. Stay tuned for the result!

 

[dawggpie]

if you have more spare time to kill, i say go ahead and waste as much of their time as u can. If u really want to push it, see if u can get some real money out of them... just a couple dollars as a nice little "f u" to them. Say u need money for postage and gas cost, whatever.

There are plenty of web sites about scamming scammers... they're pretty funny. Maybe u can get some ideas from them.

http://www.thescambaiter.com/
http://www.419eater.com/

I'm amazed that people fall for this stuff.... or else it wouldn't exist.

 

[Bigglezworth]

Age old scam - just with a fresh face. Depost a cheque and wait for the bank to deal with it. When they confirm it's counterfeight they will cancel the transaction.

 

[djdrock]

I see this kind of stuff all the time at the bank I work at. Different variations...

Recently...had a $75,000 check deposited into a customers account. The check was counterfeit...I could go on and on.

I remember one where a lady was approached by a "company" that saw her resume on Monster.com. She met with a person in a little small town at a local Hardees, and the scam began...We would like to hire you to work from your home. We will be mailing you a check so you can buy the office furniture you need etc. Then, after receiving the check, the customer gets a call stating that they accidently sent the wrong amount (by about $20,000). She is instructed, in an effort to save time, to deposit it into her bank account, then get a cashiers check, and mail the difference back to the crooks. It is a counterfeit check drawn off of a legitimate bank, and very often a legitimate account.

Bad bad stuff going on out there....

 

[Dtrigg]

Hello. This is Dr. Moreno. Did you get my check? The furniture company keeps calling me wanting their funds...

 

[TRM04]

The man above is a scam ^^^^

This is the REAL Dr. Moreno. Did you get the check? :biggrin:

 

[sjones]

small world... i just bought a pristine 1998 twin turbo Toyota Supra from a Dr. Moreno for $8K. He must still be out of the country.. said he would get the car shipped as soon as he gets to the states.

 

[fifrules]

Any updates?

 

[peiserg]

Any updates?

yes.

Turns out this guy was on the up and up. Unfortunately, he got tired of the run around, and so I intervened on the back end and agreed to rent out one of my houses to him. Unfortunatley, due to a clerical error on his end, instead of $30,000 for rent and furniture, he sent me $300,000. Luckily, i was able to rectify the situation by sending him a wire transfer of $270,000, and he should be moving in shortly.

geez. some of you guys don't trust anyone!