Possible rental scam, should I be wary?

Digital Solitude

I contacted an agency about a house in Galway yesterday, and was informed that the landlord did not want to rent to students, however I received an email today, claiming to be from the owner himself saying he wished to have it rented, seemed fairly desperate to do so.

I'm a little wary as he claims to be in the UK, and is operating behind his agency. Perhaps, the done thing, I'm not sure. He also didn't give a company he worked for, just titles, also his English is a little off.

His emails to me are as follows

Hello,

My name is David Driver i received an email that your interested in renting my house. The house is available, have all the facilities and utilities: TV, parking, laundry, air conditioning, high-speed Internet, pets are allowed. The monthly rent is 400 euros and includes all costs (heating, water and electricity).I worked in Ireland for 7 years and I bought the house for me and my family , but now I'm back in UK, and I will not stay there, so this is the reason why I rent the house. I'm director at Company Secretary, Llp Designated Member. I am very busy with my work.I also rent the house for a long and short time.For how long do you need?I want more information about you if you do not mind.

Kind Regards David Driver

Sent from my iPhone

I replied stating I was student, when I wanted property and requested a viewing.

Hi again ,

Like I have informed you before, the price for 1 month of rent will be 400 Eur with all the bills included in it , and I want also a guarantee deposit 500 Eur, with no extra taxes to pay.
You can use my furniture, or you can also use your own if you prefer. If you decide to use yours, you can store my furniture in the large basement cellar.
I want to receive the money monthly into my bank account , so I hope that will be no problem for you to wire the money .

I am willing to send you the keys so you can visit it and see it suits your needs. The delivery for the keys and viewing permit (signed by me), will be made with Airbnb ( www.airbnb.com ) to make sure that we can trust each other.

If you are interested I can explain you the procedure , so I wait news from your side because I really need to take care of this matter.

Thanks !

I replied just asking for him to explain it to me. This second email didn't have the iPhone tag, and was also in a different font. Boards can't display it, but it is an option for gmail. His email address looks fairly standard.

Apologies if this was a little long winded

Thanks for any advice or help given.

whippet

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I contacted an agency about a house in Galway yesterday, and was informed that the landlord did not want to rent to students, however I received an email today, claiming to be from the owner himself saying he wished to have it rented, seemed fairly desperate to do so.

I'm a little wary as he claims to be in the UK, and is operating behind his agency. Perhaps, the done thing, I'm not sure. He also didn't give a company he worked for, just titles, also his English is a little off.

His emails to me are as follows




I replied stating I was student, when I wanted property and requested a viewing.



I replied just asking for him to explain it to me. This second email didn't have the iPhone tag, and was also in a different font. Boards can't display it, but it is an option for gmail. His email address looks fairly standard.

Apologies if this was a little long winded

Thanks for any advice or help given.

Run a million miles ... He sounds like The Wallet Inspector !!

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

400 all in including internet & bills? Sounds like it's too good to be true, you're right to be wary.

liquoriceall

Unless you are renting the garden shed then €400 pm is ridiculous! If it sounds to good to be true it probably is! Contact the letting agency and let them know as it looks like there is some glitch somewhere? Or is the letting agency real even? Was the whole thing a scam from start to finish?

FortySeven

I would be extremely wary. That house cannot exist at that money surely? All bills, aircon, high speed internet? Anywhere with high speed internet in Galway is not rural and there are no houses at that money in towns. Sounds like a scam to get the deposit money.

Roddy23

You should google David Driver -might not be the same person but looks ominous.

Also air conditioning in Galway? Really for 400/month?

Sounds like a copy/paste scam from an advertisement for the Algarve.

clintondaly

It doesn't add up,he says he returned to the UK which suggests his native tongue is English,however the grammar within what he sent you is not in line with his character.

Digital Solitude

This isn't a good sign! It's a four bedroom house, and I'm of a group of four. Should have specified, sorry! He's looking for €1600pm total.

Googled the name and the email, name brought up nothing, seems common enough. Email had 0 results.

Victor

Air conditioning makes it almost automatically a scam.

The number of residential properties with air conditioning in Ireland is exceptionally low.

Almost none of them will be rental properties.

dubscottie

Its a scam.. All the signs are there. He will want you to send the deposit asap or pay some sort of "fee"..

Do a reverse image search on google. Bet you the pics are from another site.

liquoriceall

Oh I love it! Just googled the words David Driver rent and apparently one of the lead actors in Rent was David Driver!

ash23

Air con? Large basement? In galway. Highly unlikely.
I'd not chance it.

Digital Solitude

I didn't even read air conditioning The basement was a bit weird I thought. Thanks guys, I've enough opinions there to put me off it

Ronin247

www.419eater.com

There are some excellent ideas on there for scam baiting

Mrs OBumble

You could have some fun with keeping him fishing, if, say, it was summer and you were bored.

lcwill

Definitely a scam

Squatman

50 beans says he wouldnt be able to tell you the address of the house if you asked him

my3cents

I bet this scammer is emailing from a Gmail account? Many email accounts give away the location of the sender in the email header but its well known that Gmail doesn't.

TheBeach

Do Irish people 'wire' money? Errmmm, don't think so!

kippy

Have you a link to the ad?

Digital Solitude

Yeah it's a gmail account.

Western Union would be the way to go wouldn't it?

I'll chance taking the piss out of him, thanks again guys.

CantGetNoSleep

This is a quite common scam in Europe, you will end up giving over 500€ or so and never hearing anything.

If the house looks too nice, too cheap or there are language mistakes everywhere, walk away.

The amount of people who have been caught by such scams is amazing though.

mid

Also airbnb don't organise delivery of keys

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=95549919

Call me Al

Is it a proper estate agency? Do they have a proper website, a landline and legitimate offices? How did he get your email address?

On the face of it it's quite strange. He's quite desperate to rent a house that by all accounts won't be hard to rent to anyone (professional or student), considering all of the extras that are added on.
I wouldn't trust any of this, and my instinct is that's all a con.

punisher5112

Hi op I have a box on 123 fake street I'll rent it for €400 all bills included.


Yes run a mile that has to be one of the most well running scams

Digital Solitude

He's asked for personal details, a copy of my passport and a picture of me :pac:

I'd have worked that out anyways.

Going to send him a poorly photoshopped version of a fat naked man and see what the craic is

my3cents

Digital Solitude wrote: »

He's asked for personal details, a copy of my passport and a picture of me :pac:

I'd have worked that out anyways.

Going to send him a poorly photoshopped version of a fat naked man and see what the craic is

Plenty of good information here http://www.419eater.com/html/baiting.htm and the recommendation is

Question.
The scammer is asking for some of my identification or a copy of my passport. Where do I find some fake ID to send to him?

Answer.
We now discourage people from sending fake identification to scammers. There is the possibility that the scammer may use the very ID you send to him, to fool a real victim, and although you may create what you think is a totally unbelievable ID featuring some well known celebrity or funny name, there is a possibility that a real victim may be totally unaware of that celebrity or perhaps comes from a country where because of the language differences does not recognise the amusing name as such.

You will find plenty of suggestion for sending garbage files instead of IDs to a scammer on our very busy FORUM. One favourite method is to select a random (and large!) .DLL file and rename it to something like "passport.jpg". Of course the scammer will not be able to display it on his computer, but that's not your fault is it?!

PetuniaT

Aircon and a basement in Galway? Are ya mad Ted? Run

L1011

You need to let the agent know they're leaking data (compromised email, dodgy staff member, whatever) urgently

Digital Solitude

I'll call them now. Your mans email is gone anyways.

gaius c

Unfortunately Airbnb is home to a number of scammers who try to get you to transfer money to them directly. Never ever do this. Only pay through the Airbnb payment system to protect yourself.