Rental Scam - [email protected]

Post on Craigslist - subject line "$95 / 1br - Come, stay with us, and have that perfect key west beach vacation. (key west)"

Pictures were attached to the email. When I inquired about what the booking process was (trying to find out if they wanted money wired) they never responded. So I'm not 100% sure but pretty sure because the offer is too good to be true (besides the gmail address and not perfect English) I guess I won't be going to Key West this weekend.


Hello,
Thanks for your interest in our condo,it will be available from
March 31st @ $95 per night if you book for a reservation with us
now.please get back to us with the dates you will like to book.Thanks.


Property Type: condo
Floor Area: 1,000 sq. ft.

Dining: dining room-- seating for 4 people

Bathroom 1 - Toilet, Combination Tub/Shower

Bedrooms:
1 bedrooms, sleeps maximum of 4 people
Bedroom 1 - 1 King
sleeping sofa.

I got another email from a different email domain with a totally different property (diff pictures too) but replying to the exact same posting above.

THEN I got another email to my other email account for a property I inquired about on VRBO.com which the real owner had responded to immediately days ago. But now I got 2 scam emails about that property asking me to send them money.

What's going on? Why are they targeting me even though I'm not stupid enough to send them money? How are they using a real person's email address and responding to my email to her?

It may be hard to know exactly what happened.

Scammers buy or steal other scammer's script / story line. There is no honor among thieves.

The scammer may have hijacked the real user's email account. They have been known to do that too.

If you check the headers, that may help with the mystery. Gmail headers are not very helpful. If the emails are from a provider other than gmail, you can learn some from it. Please post up any email addresses you get a scam from.

This person is still at it.

They asked me to pay via bank transfer but I insisted on PayPal. They then provided me with else's e-mail address so I could send them money, AKA, another compromised PayPal account

Hi Baconator, it is best once you determine you are dealing with a scammer to just stop all communication with them. They often have personal information about you, so messing with them is not the best thing to do.

Sending them off on a different trail is called scam baiting and that is not something we cover here. If you want to learn to do that safely, become a member at www.419eater.com.

One thing to remember, scammers are not stupid and they do know how to make people's life difficult if they want to.

Ok, so I wasn't as lucky to see this post or even find this website until after the person scammed me. He sent me an email last night stating that there was fire in the condo so we would not be staying there. I did get a Gmail phone number of 559-492-8521 goes by the names James. We did send the money on Paypals and now disputing the charges, but is there anything else we can do? I have a ton of emails he sent me back along with a so called receipt. We leave tomorrow for our vacation from Minnesota and struggling to find a place to stay now that we only have the day to find another place and short on funds since we sent them $895 through paypal. Help any suggestions on what else to do? I did send him an email from another email address trying to book the condo to see where we are to send the money this time.

Below is the email he sent for payment.

Hello,
I own and manage the condo, i will hand-over the keys to you in
person on your check-in date.To book the condo on the dates you have
selected. (April 3rd to 10th).

PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO MAKE THE PAYMENT VIA PAYPAL.

" VERY IMPORTANT " IN THE PAYMENT DESCRIPTION TYPE " SERVICES"
''DO NOT ADD ANY MEMO OR NOTE TO THE PAYMENT''

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cm ... y_code=USD


Once we confirm your payment,the condo will be reserved for you and we
will send you the receipt of your booking.NOTE :WE DO NOT ACCEPT
E-CHECK.Once you have made the payment,send us a message to alert us
of your payment.

WE NEED YOU TO FILL THE INFORMATION BELOW,NEEDED FOR YOUR
BOOKING.(SEND IT AS A REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE).


(1) Your Full Names:
(2)Your Residence address:
(3)City:
(4)State:
(6)Zipcode:
(7)Phone number:

Big red flag: Asking you to send them money via PayPal to an e-mail address that's different than the one they've been using to correspond.

Good luck with finding another play to stay on such notice.

This scammer is using the following two sites.

http://indianrocksbeachcondo.webs.com/

http://lagunabeachcondo.webs.com/

Both websites are in the process of being reported for fraud.

These people are still at it. I answered an ad on Craigslist that had the tag line:

$190 / 2br - fully equipped and furnished beach condo (West Palm Beach)

I received a response from [email protected] from someone calling himself "James", thanking me for my interest. He also included pictures of the condo I was supposed to be renting. We emailed back and forth several times about questions I had, and then yesterday I got the following email:

Hello,
I own and manage the condo, i will hand-over the keys to you in
person on your check-in date.To book the condo on the dates you have
selected. (December 1st to January 31st).

PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS
Log Into Your Paypal Account And Send The Deposit.Choose The Second
Option (Below Goods And Services).

View The Attached Picture For A Clear Example.

PAYPAL EMAIL ( [email protected] )
AMOUNT: $1500

Once you have made the payment,send us a message to alert us of your payment.

WE NEED YOU TO FILL THE INFORMATION BELOW,NEEDED FOR YOUR
BOOKING.(SEND IT AS A REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE).
(1) Your Full Names:
(2)Your Residence address:
(3)City:
(4)State:
(6)Zipcode:
(7)Phone number:

I was already starting to feel suspicious prior to receiving this email, but don't really know why. Guess my years spent as a PI/investigator in the repossession industry has always made me suspicious?? But either way, once I received this bizarre email with a request for payment with no name, no nothing, I knew something was up. I thankfully did not make the payment. I did email back and asked who I was speaking to, what guarantee I would be give once payment was made, and if we should speak on the telephone. Of course, no response was ever received after that.

But I didn't stop there. I began researching the email address that was listed with the Paypal request of: [email protected].

I immediately connected that email address to a 61 year old woman named Faye Lee. She had been seeking Army pen pals online and was using that email address for her responses.

She also uses the names:

Faye Lee
Faye Bishop
Ella Brothers

and shows associations with a James Bishop.

I found her Facebook page. It is at: https://www.facebook.com/faye.lee.16718

Once I saw her page, I knew for sure that this was a scam. The woman portrayed on this page, definitely did not own a luxury condo on the ocean in Florida. I continued digging and found her address of:

304 Valley Street in Morristown, TN 37813

I contacted the tax office in Morristown, TN and confirmed that the property was owned by a "Ella Faye Lee Bishop Brothers".

I also searched on the images provided to me of the condo, and found that they were taken directly from an apartment website in Baton Rouge, Louisiana called the Regent Apartment Homes.

I filed a fraud report with Craigslist with the 2 posting id #'s I knew were connected to these people, and flagged them as fraud. However, when I looked them up today, they are both still visible. and were updated just yesterday. I don't know why?? I also filed a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

But I didn't stop there. I put all my information together, and contacted the Morristown, TN Police Department. I was able to speak with a detective there who requested that I send her all the information I had. Unfortunately, she could not fill out a police report, as I never paid any money, so wasn't really defrauded.

But she said that she would look at what I had. I sent her everything, including the phone # that people posted on this thread, and the additional websites that I found still active online today, where they are advertising other vacation homes. I did receive a response from the detective that she was handing over all the information to their fraud investigator.

I don't know what will come of it, but am hopeful that they will pay her a visit and confront her with the information I provided. Her home is less than 10 miles from the police station.

So, that is my story with these people. I only hope that it can be useful to someone else, and prevent them from making a big mistake!! Even though I didn't pay, I still feel like I was taken. Although, I have heard stories about things like this, I personally never experienced anything like this before.

Take heed people....these are some bad individuals.

I have some pictures of her, but am not sure exactly how to post them, so if they don't show, they are available on her Facebook page...

[img}https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-[/img]

[img}https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-[/img]

I too have joined the ranks of getting scammed by this SOB to the tune of $2300.00. I have been scammed by someone using paypal and craigslist for a condo rental at Indian Rocks Beach, FL I sent them a deposit Oct 1 via paypal and a final payment Dec 22 via paypal totaling $2300. I have not received any instructions about the key and someone to meet me at the condo. They did not return my message on the phone either,
Today I sent them a email requesting a refund as it was more than their required two week notice. After reading this blog I am sure they will not respond to me. Living on social security leaves little room for sob's like this. Please help me if anyone can.

The email addresses related to the fraud are [email protected], [email protected] , [email protected]

Phone number I have is for James at the Rental Service (559) 492-8521