Room for Rent and other rental scams
#29434 by Canadaleaf Thu May 27, 2010 10:29 am
I can't figure this one out. We are moving to another state and trying to find a place to rent in a good area with a good school district. I looked on craiglist.com and found a posting entitled "$950 / 4br - Great 4/3 Home (*city we are looking at was place here*)" I emailed the person to ask about the school district and this is the email I got:

Hi

Thanks for responding to my ad on Craigslist for the rental property.

The property is still available. In fact, I was in town to sell the property but the buyer
backed out at the last minute because of financial difficulties. My misfortune is your
gain because I must rent it out quickly before I go back to my practice in New York.
I only want to deal with somebody who has a steady income and can pay the rent
on time. Please do not respond if you have a history of late rent payments or were
evicted within the past 5 years.

The rent is monthly with a yearly lease and it does not include utilities, except
water. It is available immediately and is not furnished. Small dogs and cats are
allowed with a refundable deposit of $100.00.

I need to get this place rented out as soon as possible because I am only in town for
a week so if you want to see it please contact me back right away and I will show it
to you immediately. I am available just about any time to show it to you.

I will have a lease prepared and ready when I show you the place so we can do this
right away if you like it. I'll give you the keys when you sign the lease. My staff will
handle the deposit and rent payments so you do not need to bring your checkbook.
Please bring identification.

You will also need to bring a credit report with you no later than 30 days old. I will
not run a credit report for you because I don't do this full time and I don't have an
office in this area.

I recommend this place: http://walps.com/creditreportcouponcode89125 because I
have used them before and they are quick and inexpensive. Also my link will take
you directly to a discount page. If you are around 550 or better and have never
been evicted you should be ok.

Please let me know when you want to see the place. I can answer the rest of your
questions when we get together. We can first meet at a public place of your choosing
if you desire. I must keep my cell phone open for medical emergencies so for now,
please contact me through email.


Best Regards,
Dr. Bill Walps
Walps Enterprises, Inc
518-571-9257

I felt uncomfortable with the email and he actually never answered my question about school district or given me the address to the property.

Forward another week or so and my husband was also looking for properties and saw this ad too. He replied using his email address to find out where the property is and he gets the same exact email.

Is this a scam?
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#29437 by Dotti Thu May 27, 2010 12:12 pm
yes, it is a scam. We have seen lots of these lately.

I haven't checked yet, but it's safe to say that the website (which I hope our sitekillers will be able to close down) will ultimately lead to creditreport.com as that is where every single one of these has led so far. On creditreport.com you will be offered a "free" or "low cost" credit report. The only catch is, you have to provide a credit card number, and you musst sign up for a free trial of their credit monitoring service. If you don't manage to follow their obnoxious, complicated process for cancelling the credit monitoring service, they will start to bill your credit card every month.

Once they successfully bill your credit card, the "property owner" (who really doesn't own any property) will be paid a referral fee. I believe the current fee is $24 per person.

After you get the credit report, of course, the "property owner" will either disappear, or tell you the property is rented. The only purpose of the ad was to lure people to creditreport.com and collect the affiliate fees.

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#29465 by Canadaleaf Thu May 27, 2010 11:40 pm
Thanks, Dotti. Such filth out there. I didn't click on the link because I had just gotten a copy of my FREE annual credit report just days before.
#31554 by aj52 Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:18 pm
I Rec'd the exact response from this POS via e-mail June 24th. I never responded! :squish:
#31645 by Ralph Sun Jun 27, 2010 6:59 pm
Hi AJ, welcome to Scamwarners.

I am glad you realised there was something wrong and didn't reply, well done.
#31647 by emcakes814 Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:16 pm
He tried to get me too! He sent me and my BF the same email (different email addresses) about two different properties... The same email listed above. It's sad people arte like this, we really need to find a place and soon!
#31648 by Ralph Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:23 pm
Hi emcakes, welcome to Scamwarners,

I am sorry to here a scammer is causing you troubles but happy you realised that it's a scam unfortunately there are many more scammers out there like this one so please be very careful, if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask.
#31737 by aj52 Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:57 pm
Don't have the e-mail response here,but got the exact e-mail from same scammer on another rental home in my home town! Thats two in one week in same town! Love to meet this guy somewhere private. :bondage: Hello Dr. Bill Walps
#32413 by MissMandy Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:39 pm
I just received the same email from Dr. William Walps. It sounded too good to be true! I also asked questions in my email that were not answered. The response was pretty generic. I'm glad I found this site!

Beware everyone. There are alot of people out there like this!
#33060 by awebb Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:23 pm
HEY....... THANKS for being there. My landlord just broke into my house????, while I was at work. I`m trying to move and I did get an email response from Mr. Walps. In the middle of my reply I thought, let me google him..... YEA!!!!!!!! You guys were there. Thanks so much, really.!!!! I`ve been taken advantage of too much lately. Keep it up! You saved me from yet another violation. GOOD CARMA TO ALL OF YOU !!!! AMW Let the pure of heart unite!
#33062 by Ralph Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:48 pm
Hi Awebb,

I am not sure if you got the wrong forum but the scammers we deal with dont break into your house while your out, perhaps you could explain some more.
#33615 by vamose2 Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:28 pm
I just received exact same email today excpet for it was $750 a month for 4 bedroom in the city I was looking for. I flagged him on craigslist the other day because prices just are not that cheap in this area. Post was never removed so I thought I would email to get more info and got the same exact email you did.

There are alot of scams under rentals. Usually the person doesnt live in town or state your looking for and want you to send money first before you even see place or get keys. So this email almost looked real. But the whole credit report thing is what got me thinking it was a scam. So I googled his name and sure enough this forum popped up.
#33621 by Jillian Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:24 am
Welcome vamose2, I'm glad the information here showed up in a search for you. Please let us know if you have any questions about this or other scams. :D

Have you sent a payment to a scammer with Western Union and now realize it's a scam? If the payment has not been picked up, you can cancel it immediately! 1-800-448-1492

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#34349 by sgompertz Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:16 am
IVE SENT THREE EMAILS TO CRAIGLIST ABOUT THE NUMBER OF SCAMS ON LONDON RENTALS WEBSITE (OVER HALF) & THEY HAVE BEEN IGNORED-HAS ANYONE A THOUGHT AS TO HOW TO GET CL TO BE PROACTIVE ON THIS ISSUE-I FEEL THEY ARE BEING TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE-ONE OF THE SCAMMERS JUST POPPED UP ON CL NEW YORK-A BAD SIGN

STEVE G

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