Scam Alert

[Beaupre1]

This is the e-mail that I received from a person in the UK who wants to rent my house in Edmonton sight unseen.

Hello ,

Thanks for your response in my enquiry . I am interested in renting your house,I live in United Kingdom(Wolverhampton) with a Great Ambition in Life.I will be coming to the Canada (Edmonton) on or before 15th of December to relocate there permanently based on my business in the Canada and most of my clienteles on business role are based in the Canada and there mode of payment mostly comes in bank wire transfer and through credit card.The international money transfer tax for legal entities (companies) in United Kingdom is 25%, whereas for the individual it is only 7%.There is no sense for me to work this way, while tax for international money transfer made by a private individual is 7% so I prefer paying the 7% .That`s why I often come to the Canada to receive it myself from them and return back to the UK and this cost me alot of money and time so thats why I decided to relocate to the Canada .

I will be needing the house to stay and I need to secure the house before my arrival to the Canada .I checked on your profile and I am ready to pay your offer as described in your profile and I will like to know if any deposit will be included .I will also be glad to see pics if you have any and if not then we can proceed. I will need the house urgently,Pls do get back to me with the house description, move in rent fees for the first month and any deposit if included.Hope to hear from you asap and have a wonderful day.

Regards,

Robin Collins .

 

[Lucas]

Hi there,

I`m new to the rental side of investment...how does this particular scam work?

cheers,

Lucas

 

[Bill]

When you reply back that you have a place available for them they make arrangements to send you a cheque or bank draft of some type for more than you asked. There will be some type of explanation that they need to get money converted to Canadian funds, just received an inheritance, they have to submit a receipt to their company showing they paid a certain amount, or some other semi-plausible reason for the larger amount.

They then ask you to send back the extra by wire transfer. Due to the delay in the bank finding out the original bank draft or funds were counterfeit or in some way fraudulent it may take a week, two or even longer for it to be discovered. Eventually when they do discover the funds are not real they reverse the transaction leaving you out what ever you wired to the possible tenant.

 

[navaz]

From what I have seen and understood in the past- these guys send you a money order or certified cheque for one years of rent - then they ask for a small amount back prior to them moving back -the catch is the orignal money order or certified cheque is forged hence the bank bounces it back -but it takes them a long time to find out it was a fraud and you are out of pocked the money that you refunded to them

 

[pgalas]

This has recently happened to my cousin and his fiancee as well (they have 2 houses that they are trying to rent and they both received this e-mail - I think it was supposed to be from Ireland in his case). Luckily they didn`t fall for it...

 

[adamjennshows]

We received the exact same email inquiry from the same guy today, which we immediately deleted.