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I think I may have found a new twist on the Nigerian scam. I am helping a friend look for an apartment in DC, and I saw a posting on Craigslist that looked too good to be true - $600/mo for a 3-bedroom apartment in DC proper! So I sent the following e-mail to the address on the listing:
Hi, I am a little puzzled by your Craiglist posting. You are offering a 3br house for rent for $600/mo? Can you clarify on this? Where is the house located? I am helping a friend look for an inexpensive place in DC, he lives in NYC now so I am helping out because I know what is a safe neighborhood better than he does, etc.
Eight hours later, I received the following reply:
from: stevens.hook@yahoo.com
Hello Dear,Thanks for the email. I own the apartment and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer to West Africa, Nigeria that makes me and my wife to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in West Africa and will be staying here for the next 4 years in our new house and also with the keys of the apartment for rent, we try to look for an agent that we can give this documents and the keys before we left but could not find, and we as well do not want our house to be used any how in our absence that is why we took it along with us. I and my wife came over to Africa for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us that you will take very good care of the house. So get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home. Hope you are okay with the price of $600 per month with hydro,heat laundry facilities, air condition and so on.This is the address of the Apartment (1311 28th Street Southeast, Washington DC 20020 )
SO IF YOU ARE REALY INTERESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE
RENT APPLICATIONS FORM BELOW
RENT APPLICATION FORM
Pls let me get this answer.
1)Your Full Name
2)Your Full Address & Phone Number
3)How old are you?
4)Are you married?
5)How many people will be living in the house?
6)Do you have a pet?
7)Do you have a car?
8)Occupation?
9)What is your religion?
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and
contacting you.Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you,please we are giving you all this base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand,so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this.
Thanks and you are welcome
Regards.
There are so many red flags in this, it looks like Gay Days at Disneyland.
- Obviously this person is not a native English speaker, but that’s not unusual; this city has a lot of different nationalities.
- Hmm, they got transferred to West Africa? Do you get transferred when it’s missionary work, or do you get sent? I would have thought the latter, but I could be wrong.
- Nigeria…I’m sure “scam” is the first word people associate with that country these days. Yes, missionaries do work there, but still - “Nigeria” just screams scam.
- They took all the keys with them, well, that was prudent, but it also makes it impossible to inspect the house. Wouldn’t it have been better to leave them with a trustworthy neighbor?
- The address - nobody ever writes “Southeast” like that. It’s SE, that’s how you write it.
- Four years? You’re going to be gone four years?
- You’re charging $600/month for a 3-bedroom in an area where similar apartments are $1300. Riiiiiight.
- The last paragraph is so awful. “We are giving you all this based on trust” and “await your urgent reply” are straight out of the usual scams where some relative has died or whatever.
- It’s illegal to discriminate on the basis of religion regarding housing. Craigslist doesn’t say anything about it - some other listing sites do - but if you say “you’re the wrong religion, you can’t rent from me” you will get your ass taken to court.
- And if you haven’t figured it out by now, here’s the kicker. They expect you to send them $600 a month. Hello?!
So, yeah. This looks like a new - to me - twist on the usual Nigerian scam. I think I’ll take it over to Scam Victims United and see if anybody’s heard of it before. And if I’m wrong, I’ll eat my hat. The one I’m going to sew out of baby spinach leaves, of course.
Added: I can’t find the posting anywhere on Craigslist now. Gee hmmmm.
More: Aha! Found it.
Comments
thank you for putting this out here, I got really excited about nothing, even if I won’t live in SE.
WOW those bastards are everywhere now, huh?
I found this exact same scam in Craigslist in Charleston, SC
Shit, I found similar one in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It sounded so freaking nice. Too good to be true, so I had to do some research. And here we go. Thanks, man for posting this. Hope it will help other ones to realize the scam before they send there money to them.
Same scam…….in Kitchener, ON
I can’t believe these people!!!
Same in Huntsville, AL…One reads almost identical, but another that I received today reads similar, but a different twist…
“Hello,
Thanks for the email and it is my gladness to hearing from you.I am
Rev Charles Chris,the owner of the house you are making inquiry
of.Actually I resided in the house with my family,since my Wife
died,am with my only daughter before and presently we had packed due
to my transfer from my Church and now situated in Missouri Usa.And
presently my house is still available for rent in,for ($700) including
the utilities like hydro,washer and security,WIFI, washing machine,
and central or electric heating, The house includes utilities heat,
hydro, cable, fridge, stove, it cooks with dishwasher, hall, dining
room, bath, cleanliness, elevator, conditioned air, TV, DVD, terrace,
located in a well communicated very exclusive zone and with downtown.
lovely furnished Hrdwd, Jacuzzi, loft, kitchen in beautiful Victorian
house. 3 rooms Include: 3 Queen Bed,2 bathrooms, We accept pets like
cat and Dogs.it is furnished. Price in Per/month and it is very much
available , with parking space for 3 cars. All room wired for
internet/cable and telephone .I want you to get back to for more
information as the keys and the document to the house.Pls i want you
to note that, i am a kind and honest man and also i spent alot on my
property that i want to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your
absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your
own,is that taken,it is not the money the main problem but want you to
keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat when i
came for a check up.i do that once in a while.I also want you to let
me have trust in you as i always stand on my word and my ph number is
240-949-2932.
House Address:
6500 Walden Run Circle
Huntsville, AL 35806
Square meters: 100 m²
Nº Bedrooms: 3
Nº Bathroom: 1
Other Details
Bedrooms
·Single Bed·Wardrobe·Sheets & Blankets·Double Bed
The Livingroom
·Video·Sofa·Furnished·DVD·Iron·TV
The Kitchen
·Gas Hob·Furnished·Microwave·Electric Hob·Fridge·Washing Machine·Plates
& cutlery·Oven
General Description
·Terrace·Furnished·Gas Heating·Air Conditioning
RENT APPLICATION FORM
Also,Pls let me get this answer.
1)Your Full Name
2)Your Full Address & Phone Number
4)Are you married?
5)How many people will be living in the house?
6)Do you have a pet?
7)Do you have a car?
8)Occupation?
Pls i want you to note that,i am a kind and honest person and also i
spent alot on my property that i want to give you for rent,so i will
solicit for your absolute maintenance of this flat and want you to
treat it as if it is your own, money is not the main problem but i
want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it
neat when i come for a check up.i do that once in a while.I also want
you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word. I will
also like to know how many months you will want to rent and you can
call me on my line 240-949-2932.
I await your response, so that we can proceed from there and if you
are interested let me know so i can give you a phone number to reach
me on.
Thanks And God Bless……….
Regards.
Same on Long Island NY. Like an idiot, I emailed this guy twice from my work email address so he has my full name. Can they do anything with that? Thank God I found these posts. You know what they say, if it sounds too good to be true………….I hope someday they get theirs.
Same thing in Portland, OR
I THINK THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE WHEN I WAS THERE AND TRYING TO FIND A LIVING, BECAUSE IT HARD OVER HERE.
jonh vic, I think I speak for everyone who reads this blog when I say, “What?”
Same scam running rampant on Craiglist in Calgary, AB. Numerous listings. Does anyone know if there are any extradition agreements with Nigeria for capital fraud? I decided to play around with one of the scammers that I e-mailed, including listing William “Billy” Corgan as my work supervisor, Shannon Hoon as my reference, and my home phone number as: 8-6-7-5-3-o-9(ee-eye-n).
The dumbass actually wrote me back with Western Union transfer information. By the way, if you’re ever in Yaba, Nigeria, be sure to visit “Christian Leonard” at 201-209 Wayne Avenue. 
I got the same reply for a listing in Portland, OR. The thing is, they gave a real address and had pictures of a real home. I wonder if the home owners know they are being used in this scam
The same also goes for people who are renting rooms. I have two rooms in my apartment I am renting and I get lots of people saying they are from Canada, Germany, France, UK or even Russia and they want to live with me really bad. They just need my full name, address and telephone number to get me the money order or cashiers check and they will pay in advance.
Most likely I would get something that wouldn’t clear and they would tell me they can’t make it or that they need the money back quickly with some sob story, so I am supposed to feel sorry for them and send it back before the fake money clears (or doesn’t).
The kicker is my ad is VERY descript and they usually tell me to send them details that are printed multiple times in my ad including pictures.
Beware of people responding to your ads, not just the ads that are posted.
We just received an e-mail from the same couple on their missionary trip to West Africa, Nigeria. The only difference with this one is that they are trying to get soneone to adopt their poor Yorkshire puppy whom they bought in the states and took with them, but have since found out the African weather is not good for the puppy and want someone to send $250.00 for shipping the dog back to the states. My elderly parents almost fell for this, but I told them I thought it might be a scam and that they needed to check into it. I’m glad I found this article about what sounds like the same couple trying to scam people any way they think they can. I hope that many others will be warned by this website and these two blogs that have been posted, as well as searching out these kinds of e-mail they receive before falling for them. Thank you Meredith for your posting your experience and thank you to all the others who have contributed to revealing these scammers. They will get theirs someday. I just pray that it is before too much damage has been done.
They are not, alas, a rare breed. 
But at our blog, we’re always willing to post information that people pass on to us.
Be careful out there!