I put an ad for another person wanted to live in my house next year on Craigslist. I’ve gotten a few real responses, but many more fake ones. They usually go something like this:
I’ve gotten other ones claiming to be from Thailand, Africa, England, and other places. I don’t understand what these people are trying to accomplish here. What money could be gained from this scam?
One not so likely variation:
“I’m a hot chick who’ll let you do me. Can I rent?”
A month later, “I need $500 to help get through customs and immigration…”
More likely variation:
You receive a financial instrument [money order, bank cashier’s check, etc] for too much money. The sender says “Ooops, I meant to pay for a year in advance, can you refund me $1500 of that… you can keep $500 extra as compensation for the hassle…”
A week later, the bank “unclears” the money order. You don’t have the rent deposit itself OR the $2000 you wired back.
Edit:
Wow. She comes with her own shoe rank. Always handy, I hate when I have to go out and buy my model girlfriends shoe ranks because they left theirs in Namibia. Jump on that one!
A fake roommate seeker describing herself as a single female professional model who wants to send you pictures of herself and is sure you’ll have lots in common, and you’re wondering what she’s hoping to accomplish with this ad?
In a nutshell, she’s hoping that you’ll be sufficiently tempted by the prospect of potential in-house model nookie that you’ll provide her with enough information about yourself and/or access to your property to enable her to rip you off.
Obviously I know she’s trying to take advantage of me. I was looking for a more detailed explanation as to what “she” is planning to specifically do once I give her my information. Is whoever is behind these ads aiming to physically enter my property and steal something? Are they planning to sell my contact information to other people or something?
Most likely, they’re going to get you to try to agree to let them be a renter, and send you a fraudulent check/money order for too much money, or send you an advance payment then have to back out of it. Then they’ll try to get you to “refund” some of the difference to them via some process that leaves you holding the bag.
We can all agree that whatever the game here, the odds are 100 to 1 or more that you’ll never meet this person or even their agent, no matter how poorly you play your hand.
Mail order crime is way more profitable and safe for the criminals than the brick and mortar home delivery kind.