It’s just too weird not to be. Maybe it’s just gross incompetence. I don’t know.
I’m looking for an apartment in Charlottesville, VA. Not the best time of year to be doing this, but there are enough adds that I’m not too worried. I responded to a craigslist add for an apartment. Many of the adds have grossly inadequate descriptions, sometimes even to the point of not saying where the apartment is (“off XYZ road”, where XYZ road runs through half of town :smack:.) I ask for more information and I get a reply:
ineedahomenow.net doesn’t seem to exist, but the documents do. Is this merely attempt to get people to sign up for “free” credit reports? Seems kind of involved.
Also got a reply from someone else:
No call yet… Maybe they don’t want to rent to someone from out of town. Dunno.
I’m amazed at the number of places with zero laundry facilities. Not even in the building somewhere. “Oh, well there’s a laundromat a few blocks away”. No thanks.
The scam is that you get your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com and not the site they listed. If you use their site you will be giving your social, name and address to strangers and they will then steal your identity.
Unless I’m doing things wrong, a Whois lookup on the ineedahomenow name shows that the domain was only set up on the 13th. Same lookup on the credit check site shows that the domain was only set up on the 18th.
My vote is phishing. They want you to enter all your details in the credit check site.
When I was apartment-hunting I got one that said “The property is currently empty because I am working in Barcelona. Just send me the deposit to Barcelona and I will send you the keys because I trust you.”
You might also want to alert others to the scam by re-posting it with ‘SCAM WARNING: [original description].’ Might save a few people the trouble before it gets flagged for removal.
Not entirely on topic (but mentioned in the OP)- I’ve never lived in Charlottesville, but I don’t think not having laundry facilities in the building is that uncommon. I lived in a few apartments that had them in a building on the other side of the apartment complex. When I lived in NYC, they were a few blocks away.
You’re right. Pretty much all of my friends in NYC used public laundromats. However, there are more laundromats per square mile in NYC than in a small town. Some of these places are not within easy walking distance.
I don’t have time for that. Heck, I don’t even want it in the basement. I want it right there so I can leave my clothes in there all night without bugging anyone else. Clearly people who make apartments are not catering to the needs of Rukens. I can’t understand why
I live in Michigan and am looking for an apartment/house to rent on the west side of the state. I got that email word for word back. I thought it was strange and have requested more info and have not heard back from them. I did find this website when I was trying to research whether it was a scam or not. Now, I really think it is.
Good luck with your search.
Slightly off topic, but worth mentioning:
I had a friend in NYC, a fairly successful actress, who was a bit of a slob. Instead of doing laundry once a week, she would go every two or three weeks with almost every stitch of clothing and do all of her laundry at once - 5 - 6 loads easily.
So, she had all of her laundry in the machines, went next door for some coffee and a quick read of the newspaper, and came back - all of her laundry had been stolen! I mean ALL of it.
The only clothing she had left was what she was wearing - a sort of jogging suit, and I think she basically only had an old prom dress left hanging in her closet.
Suffice it to say, she was mighty pissed off. Had to go out and buy everything new - underclothes, jeans, tops, skirts…etc. etc.
Obviously a scam, especially given the last email, but this is really tipped me off:
AFAIK, there is no “free” credit score you can get through any service. Only the reports are free, the score you always pay for. (edit: unless you sign up for one of those trials you have to cancel.)
edit 2: Holy shit:
Wow. I don’t ever remember it being THAT expensive.
You can get a copy of your credit report for free here: www.howdoicheckmycreditreport.com/credit.php
Poor credit will have no effect on your eligibility.
This property rents quickly so please bring these items with you to see the place.
My scam radar went off as soon as I read the message in the OP. There is just something about how these things are written–too polite, almost to the point of obsequiousness–that screams scam to me.
My question is: Why haven’t these people tried bringing in native English speakers into their scams to make them seem more realistic. It’s almost as if they want to send out a subtle hint that it’s a scam in order to trap only the most gullible people.
