I believe a scam artist is e-mailing - new story line

[Kaye]

Okay, all - I've got a weird one this week. I have a unit available for rent on TUG's classified (and is ONLY on TUG). I thought I had it rented, but the respondents e-mails got weird on me and I'm looking for advice. Have we got a another scam artist visiting TUG?

The first e-mail was normal:

My name is xxxxx, i work with xx(a charity)xx,i want to know of your
apt is still available for rent,is the apt is available for rent? Is
the price firm? Will you be accepting a US certified Check or money
order Contact me with the present state of the item and your contact
information to send out the payment to you as soon as possible.
Name you want on payment:

But its the second one that has me worried, as her response goes:

Thank you for your immediate prespond ,The Payment will be issued and
mail out today but I would like to include an extra money on the payment
that will be sent to you plus the cost of your apt.The
essence of the extra money is for my Brother to pay his school fees
at the Metropolitan University in England but I am not in the best
position to send him this money because I am not holding cash right
now but Money Orders/Certifies Check and there is no way he could
cash Money Order/Certified Chech in England where he is schooling
right now.I would really appreciate your effort and concern if you
could cash the payment and send him money via Western Union after you
might have deducted the funds for the apt+ an extra $30 for your time
and effort in helping us Okay?If you wish to help us as regards this
issue the payment will be sent upon your respond aswell.....It shall
be well with you...

Today I received another copy of her first e-mail (but I was suspicious after the second one). I can accept that I haven't rented my unit, but I'm not sure what steps I should take now. I believe that if a certified check were to arrive that I would be visiting a bank manager with all information to see if check were truly valid.

I've been a member of TUG for a long time, but this one's new to me. Other advice?

 

[timeos2]

It is a total scam

Well known scam. You are best advised to ignore it - don't even reply anymore.
Look in the Buy/Sell/Rent area to see a few other, similar posts.

Your radar worked.

 

[arlene22]

Take her check and send it to the folks in Nigeria, who are also undoubtedly emailing you! No, seriously, don't even bother going to the bank with it. This is a known scam and it is based upon the fact that international checks can take weeks or even months to bounce. Even though they have "cleared" in your bank account. Do not fall for it! If it arrives in the mail, put it in the shredder.

 

[AwayWeGo]

It's A Scam For Sure.

It's a scam.

The folks at Craig's List have a summary of frequent scams that have been worked on Craig's List users.

But those are by no means unique to Craig's List.

Wouldn't surprise me any if the same fraudsters tried to work variants of the same scams on TUG users.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.