$700 /2br Very Clean! Scam alert for kitchener!

Found an apartment on Craig's list ... Yes I know now, that it should have been my first clue. Looking at the insinuated location and inclusions, I figured it was in a hotel, and since he suggested a certain area, it at first, fit the picture.

I knew something was up when I wasn't allowed to know the apartment number, and in later emails he mentioned a street name in Kitchener hoftetter, and there is only one hotel on it, no other properties, just undeveloped roads.

I drove by on my way into town and realized even if I was standing on the roof, there was no way the images he sent me could be from this place. So I wrote back, and he again denied me knowing due to security reasons, and sent me two following emails about needing money to view it, and dove into a contract.

This is the email conversation.

From Bart Ennis [email protected] note as with many scams, a name, a number and then @gmail.com. The wording is almost word for word as other scams listed here.

I was adamant about needing the address, to see commuting distances, to see if it would hold all our things, to get content insurance quotes and so on. I started getting a bad vibe after the first email, when he said he had to fly in to show it, but then said it wasn't vacant, so why could the current tenant not show it, as well as needing the money, was the existing tenant not paying?

The reflections of the property on the table, the window style and layout, wasn't anywhere to be found in a two mile radius on google mad, and when I drove by as I said, there was no way he could have a place there with those buildings in view.

I hope by posting here, I help someone prevent getting taken by this crook, and someone can help me nail him to stop him from scamming others.

People like him need to be stopped, each email with different grammatical styles. The refusal to text my phone with a phone number, and then when I copied and pasted some text into google from his emails, it was almost word for word the same.

What a nightmare, am glad I was adamant about not paying anyone for anything without seeing it first!!!

I have reported it to the Internet crime complaint centre.

Wendy




2 days ago
Hide details
Bart E
<[email protected]>
To: me
Date: January 10, 2013, 4:50 AM

Hello!

It's a pleasure to present to you my property.

My name is Bart Ennis and I have a wonderful apartment for $700/month, available immediately! Don't miss out on this opportunity!

I want to try and give you some insight into who I am and about the home you are renting... I'm not looking to make a business or a profit with it, I just want to find the proper tenant, someone who will treat and care my apartment like it was his own, so if you are a quiet and responsible tenant, look no further, make it your home!
NO smoking!


It is located in a quiet and safe area close to schools, in walking distance to local transport, restaurants and shopping, (convenient location).
It comes with 2 parking spots.

*** I attached a few pictures of it, just so you can have a good idea of what the place looks like, so please check your attached file!

...I'm the owner of it, I love this apartment and it means a lot to me. It looks exactly like in the pictures, totally finished, fully furnished and I have the option of sending all my furniture into storage if you want to bring your own, no extra costs!

You will find an equipped kitchen with refrigerator • microwave • iron • toaster • coffee maker • juice machine • dishwasher • cutlery • dinnerware • dryer • stove • oven • pots and pans • linen and bed sheets • Wireless High Speed Internet • A.C. • vacuum cleaner • washing machine • DVD player • Cable TV.


NO more bills! All utilities included : water • sewer • trash • electricity • gas • cable and Internet. I think it's a good deal!

The price will not increase monthly, it will remain the same for the whole period that the contract will be signed for. The lease is flexible (short or long), can be month to month, min stay 3 months, max 7 years.


I want this rental to be as smooth as possible, I really need to take care of this matter by the end of the next week. I just need your answer and I will send you more details ASAP.


I appreciate your interest!


Bart Ennis

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Dear Wendy,

You have a nice profile and i think you could be the new tenant.

Nice to meet you!

I would like to tell you a little bit about me and my family, I want to give you some insight into who I am.

I'm currently 42 years old and married. I'm very career focused and will be spending a lot of my time at the office. I work hard for my family. I'm a mature individual, very sincere, respectable and love friending new people. I'm a caring person who believes in taking good care of things!

My wife is speech language pathology, her name is Abbie and we have one daughter, Chloe, that is 3 years old.

I resided in this apartment with my family, I lived in it for over 4 years, loved every day of it, until 3 months ago when I got the opportunity to open a franchise ( a small business ) in Copenhagen, Denmark. We've tried to develop a family business, but unfortunately the things didn't work the way we've expected and now I am at one step from losing my market.

I had all my family moved here, I like it there but think it's a better market here in Copenhagen, I want to start a new life, in 4/5 years I will decide if I will keep it, and get back in town or if I will sell it and move forever in Denmark, you never know!

This is the second time I tried to rent the apartment, I had a deal with somebody before who said he will rent the apartment if I come back... So I got a plane ticket, and guess what!? When I arrived there, he didn't show up and after 2 days he gave me a call and said that he is sorry but he can't rent it anymore, because he has no money.

It was unfortunate that my past bitter experience of inviting people to come and view my flat without any form of confirmation of their financial ability and not keeping up to time as at when scheduled, has brought about great loss to me.

So don't get me wrong and don't take it personally, but now I don't want to buy another plane ticket to come and fall for it once more... maybe you won't show up. I'm sick of tire-kickers, people who are just looking around and not serious about renting, so please don't waste my time... No offence!

We can set up an appointment to see the apartment... You can have the keys in hands in less than 2 days. I found a way to complete the deal safe and fast for the two of us. This is a 100% safe method and you will have the chance to inspect it before final decision.

If you are interested in it mail me back and I am sure that we will find a good way to conduct this deal.

Respectfully,

Bart











---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bart E
Date: Friday, January 11, 2013
Subject: $700 / 2br - Very Clean! RENOVATED 2bdr (kitchener)
To: Me


Wendy,

This beautiful apartment is located in a lovely area ( Hofstetter Ave - Kitchener, ON - Great location on bus route and close to Fairview Park Mall, Expressway and 401 ), excellent location! The apartment is full furnished, everything is new inside, so please understand me! Due to the high number of thefts from homes, I am very cautious and will not give you this information over email.

You know that the apartment is not inhabited. I hope you understand the importance of safety when it comes to posting something of such value online.

Please do not get me wrong!

The price is low because I'm looking forward to rent it as soon as possible, I need the money and I must do that.

I will try explain to you step by step how this will work, take a few moments and read my emails carefully!

* The all utility bills will be redirected to me in Copenhagen.
* If something will broke down after you moved, you are responsible, but the cost of repairs will be deducted from your rent.
* I would like to receive the money monthly into my bank account and I hope there will be no problem for you to wire the money to it.


In order to check the apartment, see if you like it, you need to receive the keys and the contract:

Step # 1.

I need to know your shipping information:

* First name
* Last name
* Address
* City
* Postal code


Step # 2.

With the information you'll provide me, I will go at Bring Express office ( http://www.Bring.com ) and leave the keys and the contract in their possession to start the process. The delivery time will be 24/48 hours and the keys will be delivered at your address. The shipping will be done by Bring Air transportation.

Bring Express is a worldwide delivery company - It is the specialist in express logistics and courier services throughout the world. In 2010 it was voted one of the Sunday Times’ 10 Best Companies to Work for.

I used this company many times, and find they are helpful, polite, efficient and on time. I never had a problem, everything went well when I moved here. Bring Express are the best by miles. When they say they will deliver a parcel on whatever date or time, it is delivered!


Their department will check the package to see if everything is in order and also the legal papers that will come along with the keys and proof of ownership. If everything is in order, they will start the transaction and notify you with all you need to know regarding it (proof of delivery, payment instruction, my account status, etc).


Here are the contents that will be delivered to you via Bring Express:

* Entrance and the rooms keys;
* Paper/permanent flat form (Containing your reference details);
* The flat documented file;
* Payment receipts;
* Full address and description of the apartment.

Respectfully,

Bart










From: Bart E
Date: Friday, January 11, 2013
Subject: $700 / 2br - Very Clean! RENOVATED 2bdr (kitchener)
To: Me


This is step # 3.

Please note!!!

I can give you the opportunity to move into this apartment now or at the right time requested by you and inspect the apartment 2 days and decide either you keep it or not.
If you are interested you can secure the apartment now and move in it later, the lease will start from when you move in the apartment.

You will see it and decide if you will stay in the apartment or not before I receive the payment! This transaction is secure for both of us, because you'll not send me any money in advance, and on the other hand I have the insurance that you are a serious tenant.


The agent will bring the keys in front of your door and then you have 2 days to go and look at it and decide if i want to keep it. If you decide to keep it, the Bring Express team will release me the funds, if you don`t find it exactly as described, you only have to return the keys to them, they will refund the money to you and the keys back to me, on my expense! You will get the money back the same day!

You will only have to deposit to Bring Express a safety deposit - $700.00, they will be the payment for the first month of rent, so they can proceed with the shipping, and you can receive the keys and the contract. I will not receive this deposit, the payment details will be unavailable to me, I will get the payment only if you decide to rent the apartment!

Basically the money will be sent to them and they will keep the money until you will receive the keys and the contract and only after you will inspect the apartment they will forward the money to me.

This way we will have 100% protection!

If you agree with the rental conditions, we can get things started. I will complete the transaction ASAP. This way I will also reserve the apartment for you and refuse other offers.


I'm sure that you'll love it!


Respectfully,

Bart

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=ca

This was the original ad posting.

you are not alone...

He replied to my fiance when she was looking into a rental in Oakville, ON. After a couple emails he stopped responding. A week later I inquired about a different apartment in Oakville, ON and low and behold he emailed me, not realizing I was the fiance of a previous person he was in contact with. Both times he sent an email set up the same as your first email with pictures, and while these were two different apartments 3 of the 8 pictures were identical in each apartment. This made me extremely suspicious but I have been playing along to see where he takes it and I just received the same email with regards to using the Bring Express Team for delivery of my deposit and him sending the keys. I looked up the Bring company and they have made a fairly decent webpage (www.bring.com) for it to try and give legitimacy to the scam I'm sure, but when reading it there were spelling and grammatical errors all over the place.

I have not decided what to do about this (other than obviously not give anymore information other than my email he already has) as I do not really know what options there are. I still have all the emails he sent me, and we have all the emails he sent my fiance.

He is using the same email as he did with your scam which is [email protected]

Please do not fall for this guy everyone, it was pretty obvious.

Bring.com is a legitimate website. It is actually a commercial operation connected to the Norwegian postal service. The discrepancies in English are because it would have been written by people with English as a 2nd language.

But Bring is not an escrow service--they would not hold a package pending payment, or offer any kind of guarantees. And the scammer is not actually doing anything with them, he is just pointing to their website, the same way some scammers point to TNT's website in their scams.

The truth is, NO legitimate owner of a property is going to hand the keys over to a random stranger based on a few emails. And NO legitimate owner is going to travel to another country with the only keys to his place in his possession. There needs to be someone local in case of an emergency--for example, what if there was a fire? What if a pipe burst, or there was a gas leak or a burglary? No responsible owner would ignore those possibilities. He WOULD have a friend, family member, neighbor, or most likely an agent managing it (and since he claimed to live there for 4 years he certainly would have connections) someone who can handle these kinds of emergencies, meet with potential tenants, etc.

Any "landlord" willing to hand over keys without a face-to-face meeting and tour is going to be fake, period. And any owner demanding money (or demanding that you get a credit report) before allowing you to see the place is also fake.

watch out for Brandon W ([email protected]) too...

he has a different name, different email, but 1 of the pictures of the apartment is the exact same as from two other apartments a different guy (Bart E) sent me and the email is worded almost identically to the emails from Bart E...

again this was in a search for apartments in the Oakville, ON area...

im not sure what I can do to help stop this, im just obviously avoiding responding to these extremely suspicious emails....

hopefully this helps someone else...

I want to thank everyone who posted this fraud on this website. It helped me to save money. I was almost ready to send them to the guy. In my case he called himself Aaron from Denmark. I decided to look online before sending the money and found out that a lot of people already were dealing with him. I reported about him to
Crime Complaint Center IC3. Please do the same, I hope we can help to catch the guy.

Hi All,
I have experienced through the same scam. Its also done through the ID : DAVID B <[email protected]>
I had emailed this guy a couple of times requesting for the location or any local contact information.
He got back with his apartment being in Hofstetter Ave - Kitchener, ON.
I sent him a rental application and just realised it was a scam when i serached for the words in his email for the advertisements he would have put up on the internet.
I don't know where to report such internet scams.
Just letting everyone know he is a big fraud.

-RJ.

A preview of his emails.

************************************************************************************************
From: DAVID B <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 4:10 PM
Subject: Re: $725 / 2br - Superb! 2bdr available NOW (Kitchener)
To: <>

This beautiful apartment is located in a lovely area ( Hofstetter Ave - Kitchener, ON - Great location on bus route and close to Fairview Park Mall, Expressway and 401 ), excellent location! The apartment is full furnished, everything is new inside, so please understand me! Due to the high number of thefts from homes, I am very cautious and will not give you this information over email.

You know that the apartment is not inhabited. I hope you understand the importance of safety when it comes to posting something of such value online.

Please do not get me wrong!
David
************************************************************************************************
Hello!
Thank you for your interest! You have found a beautiful and immaculate home!
Attention!
This apartment is only available to clean and reliable tenants that will respect my unit and take good care of it! If you are a quiet and responsible tenant, look no further. I believe I have the right apartment for you to move in and make it a home! Available immediately!
First of all, check your attached file, I attached a few pictures of it, just so you can have a good idea of what the place looks like.
I'm the owner of this property, I love this apartment and it means alot to me. It's my pleasure to present to you.
Enjoy the fabulous location of this gorgeous apartment that is found in an easy access central area. It is very close, in walking distance to local transport,and shopping, with EXCELLENT neighbourhood and safe area!
This home has been professionally finished and decorated with a modern color scheme that coordinates throughout, it looks exactly like in the pictures, totally finished, fully furnished and I have the option of sending all my furniture into storage if you want to bring your own, NO extra costs!
It comes with 2 parking spots and has all the facilities and the utilities: Washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, refrigerator, stove, oven, juice machine, iron, toaster, coffee maker, microwave, vacuum cleaner. Never used Stainless Steel! Storage closets help keep everything organized for you and in it's proper place. Bright windows with a fresh kitchen and bathroom.
The all utilities are included in this price (rent/month): water, sewer, trash, electricity, gas, cable and Internet. No extra fees!
Short or long term lease ... The lease is flexible, can be month to month, min stay 3 months - max 5/6 years. The rent for 1 month is $725.00, for the entire apartment. The price will not increase monthly, it will remain the same for the whole period that the contract will be signed for.

You must understand, I'm not looking to make a business or a profit with it, I just want to find the proper tenant, someone who will treat and care my apartment like it was his own. If you are really interested in this apartment, I want this rental to be as smooth as possible, I really need to take care of this matter by the end of the next week.
I just need your answer and I will send you more details ASAP.

Thanks for your interest!
David Bittner

Reported the scam at
http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifr ... fraud.html

IF he is in Denmark - which I doubt - he can be dealt with by the authorities. I have a good contact with crime investigators with the local police here, but he needs to be in the country, or there is nothing they can do. Is it possible for you to post the mail header/IP address from the original scam mail?

/Dane