READ PARTS 1-7 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
Another email from the good samaritan "Chris."
"Hello Trisha, thanks for your mails.And i also recieve your mail this morning And i saw the payment information i now decided to track it online on western union website the answer that it was given is that there is no money found.I think may be you made a mistake with the numbers(3819684492),maybe you should cross check again or you should go back to the western union station that you use in sending the money.And i was trying to call your number yesterday you dont seems to pick up the phone.So when you recieve my massege i want you to give me a call or get back to my mail as soon as possible.
hope to hear soon
God bless
chris"
My response:
Chris,
Thank you for the fastness in which you have replied to my emails. I have tried to track the payment information the westtern unions website to, and I couldn't find it either. I'm so confused! That gentleman out in front of the western union store said that even though I didn't ever go into the western union store that I could track the payment on westernunion.com with the number he gave me. I think I'm going to have to go down to the western union and see if they can straighten this whole thing out.
Sorry that I did not receive your phone call. I unfortunately can't receive phone calls from blocked numbers because of an escalating situation with my ex-husband, Adalpho Heetleer. He calls me from his cell phone when I am at home and leaves threatening messages saying that he wants to put me in an oven! I don't get it! I'm Catholic!
Anyway..
I'll head down to the western union this afternoon.
God bless you for your hard work with the starving children in Africa? How is the work going there? Have you cured anyone with AIDS yet?
Please let me know that you're still interested in renting this house to us. It's very important to me to think that someone of yoru moral caliber still has trust in me. In fact, I'm afrad that my very life depends on it.
Good bless,
Trisha
11.20.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 7
READ PARTS 1-6 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
A little while after the phone call, "Chris" sent me the following email:
"
Hello,
Thanks for the mail,so here is the payment information..
Below are the information..
Name: Chris Scott
Address: 2 Gongoaso Street
City: Ikeja
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zipcode:23401
Question: what is my dog name?
Answer: Kiki."
At first I was confused. Very confused. But after doing some research on Western Union's website, they ask for a name, question and answer in order to send money, so that someone doesn't inadvertantly pick up the wrong money for the wrong overly-obvious-American-named scammer in Nigeria.
I also wanted to see just how populated Ikeja, Nigeria is. I was surprised. Here is a link.
There are 23 banks nearby that will receive his money transfer.
Here is my response to him.
"Chris,
It ws so gracious of you to recieve my telephone call yesterday. Sorry for the delay in getting you your much earned money. Something wonderful happened to me when I got to the Western Union store this morning!
As I approached the store, a well dressed representative of another wire transferring company met me at the door. He told me that he would wire my money to you at HALF the price that western Union would if I payed him in cash! I figured that this ws to good of a deal to pass up (just like the house!)!
So I went to my bank (the guy asked me for a ride to my bank so he could "expidite my order" for NO EXTRA FEE!!! Can you believe it?
Anyways, my bank wouldn't let me withdraw all the money at once, but I withdrew enough for the first 2 months payment. I gave the guy the $2600 dollars and he gave me the following number. He said it was a MTCN number (whatever that is!!).
Here is the number: 3819684492. It is under the name Chris Scott with the question: what is my dog name? The answer I told him is kiikii. Sorry that it's different than you told me. I got there and I hadn't written it down, so I couldn't remember how it was spelled. I'm sure that they'll release the money to such an upstanding individual as yourself.
God bless you, Chris, in everything you do. Please send me the tracking number for the fedex courier as soon as you send the keys! We are getting so excited to move into your beautiful house!
Trisha Fielding"
Well.. Here goes.. I'm hoping he responds saying that he went to the bank and that the answer to his question wasn't right, so I can send him on another leg of this wild goose chase.
We'll see.
A little while after the phone call, "Chris" sent me the following email:
"
Hello,
Thanks for the mail,so here is the payment information..
Below are the information..
Name: Chris Scott
Address: 2 Gongoaso Street
City: Ikeja
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zipcode:23401
Question: what is my dog name?
Answer: Kiki."
At first I was confused. Very confused. But after doing some research on Western Union's website, they ask for a name, question and answer in order to send money, so that someone doesn't inadvertantly pick up the wrong money for the wrong overly-obvious-American-named scammer in Nigeria.
I also wanted to see just how populated Ikeja, Nigeria is. I was surprised. Here is a link.
There are 23 banks nearby that will receive his money transfer.
Here is my response to him.
"Chris,
It ws so gracious of you to recieve my telephone call yesterday. Sorry for the delay in getting you your much earned money. Something wonderful happened to me when I got to the Western Union store this morning!
As I approached the store, a well dressed representative of another wire transferring company met me at the door. He told me that he would wire my money to you at HALF the price that western Union would if I payed him in cash! I figured that this ws to good of a deal to pass up (just like the house!)!
So I went to my bank (the guy asked me for a ride to my bank so he could "expidite my order" for NO EXTRA FEE!!! Can you believe it?
Anyways, my bank wouldn't let me withdraw all the money at once, but I withdrew enough for the first 2 months payment. I gave the guy the $2600 dollars and he gave me the following number. He said it was a MTCN number (whatever that is!!).
Here is the number: 3819684492. It is under the name Chris Scott with the question: what is my dog name? The answer I told him is kiikii. Sorry that it's different than you told me. I got there and I hadn't written it down, so I couldn't remember how it was spelled. I'm sure that they'll release the money to such an upstanding individual as yourself.
God bless you, Chris, in everything you do. Please send me the tracking number for the fedex courier as soon as you send the keys! We are getting so excited to move into your beautiful house!
Trisha Fielding"
Well.. Here goes.. I'm hoping he responds saying that he went to the bank and that the answer to his question wasn't right, so I can send him on another leg of this wild goose chase.
We'll see.
11.19.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 6
READ PARTS 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
In preparation to call the guy, I got my phone callerid to spoof the West Valley City police chief's message as I sent it to him in an email. My good friend, David, suggested that I should record the call. What a brilliant idea. Thanks David!
So I called the guy. It went completely different than I expected. I didn't expect the connection to be as bad as it was. There was a bit of a delay, so it was difficult for either of us to complete a sentance without interrupting each other. On top of that, I couldn't understanded a damned word he said. Towards the end of the conversation I realized that if I just waited for his complete sentance, paused and responded with a yes or no, he would get the picture. It was a 6 minute call. It was obvious that he didn't know which one of his scammees I was because he kept asking for my name and whatnot. Wouldn't it be obvious that if I were calling about the deposit who I would be?
To confirm who I was, he wanted me to send him an email so he knew who I was. He said he would send me the payment information via email and then I should text message him the confirmation.
The call was 6 minutes long, and I'm not going to edit out any of the silence or anything. The call cost me about 1 dollar.
We'll see what that says. As far as the audio goes... as far as I can tell, blogger doesn't let you upload audio files. So, below you'll find the message imbedded into a video. This took a lot of work to get this done. Sorry for the delay, and sorry for the crappy quality. It's the best I could do with my limited resources.
In preparation to call the guy, I got my phone callerid to spoof the West Valley City police chief's message as I sent it to him in an email. My good friend, David, suggested that I should record the call. What a brilliant idea. Thanks David!
So I called the guy. It went completely different than I expected. I didn't expect the connection to be as bad as it was. There was a bit of a delay, so it was difficult for either of us to complete a sentance without interrupting each other. On top of that, I couldn't understanded a damned word he said. Towards the end of the conversation I realized that if I just waited for his complete sentance, paused and responded with a yes or no, he would get the picture. It was a 6 minute call. It was obvious that he didn't know which one of his scammees I was because he kept asking for my name and whatnot. Wouldn't it be obvious that if I were calling about the deposit who I would be?
To confirm who I was, he wanted me to send him an email so he knew who I was. He said he would send me the payment information via email and then I should text message him the confirmation.
The call was 6 minutes long, and I'm not going to edit out any of the silence or anything. The call cost me about 1 dollar.
We'll see what that says. As far as the audio goes... as far as I can tell, blogger doesn't let you upload audio files. So, below you'll find the message imbedded into a video. This took a lot of work to get this done. Sorry for the delay, and sorry for the crappy quality. It's the best I could do with my limited resources.
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 5
READ PARTS 1, 2, 3 and 4 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
This is my response to our dear friend "Chris," who is being so thoughtful and trusting to let us rent his house while away in Africa.
I thought that since I don't think he's reading or understanding my email, I would respond to his email as closely as he wrote to me.
"Chris,
THanks for your reply, we are veryy willingness in this rent. Thank you for deciding to les us live in your house. I'm glad that you have found our application very setisfactry and accpable by your family. We promise to take good care of the house so that you might be glad when moving to the house at the November 27th 2008. because you find our application accepted. We are ready to rent the house now, and because of your advice to a responsible person like me to be able to afford a Security deposit of a two month upfront rent fee now to secure the property because many people have been comming to you in respect of the house. Will you email me a Lease Agreement form which I will fill and sign and send it back to you? THen I will be glad that you like to send the following document to me via the Fedex courier service to the address I send to you and the tracking number will be sent to me so that we can possible occupy your house.
Please, Chris, you can trust me. I won't dissappoint you, I promise you that I will love the house. The address which you will be sending the keys and the document to is 544 Nt. Real St., West Valley City, Utah, 84119.
My husband Xantar will be calling you shortly so you can forward on how to make the payment and your payment information.
God bless you, kind sir.
Trisha Fielding"
This is my response to our dear friend "Chris," who is being so thoughtful and trusting to let us rent his house while away in Africa.
I thought that since I don't think he's reading or understanding my email, I would respond to his email as closely as he wrote to me.
"Chris,
THanks for your reply, we are veryy willingness in this rent. Thank you for deciding to les us live in your house. I'm glad that you have found our application very setisfactry and accpable by your family. We promise to take good care of the house so that you might be glad when moving to the house at the November 27th 2008. because you find our application accepted. We are ready to rent the house now, and because of your advice to a responsible person like me to be able to afford a Security deposit of a two month upfront rent fee now to secure the property because many people have been comming to you in respect of the house. Will you email me a Lease Agreement form which I will fill and sign and send it back to you? THen I will be glad that you like to send the following document to me via the Fedex courier service to the address I send to you and the tracking number will be sent to me so that we can possible occupy your house.
Please, Chris, you can trust me. I won't dissappoint you, I promise you that I will love the house. The address which you will be sending the keys and the document to is 544 Nt. Real St., West Valley City, Utah, 84119.
My husband Xantar will be calling you shortly so you can forward on how to make the payment and your payment information.
God bless you, kind sir.
Trisha Fielding"
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 4
READ PARTS 1,2 and 3 BEFORE READING THIS POST
"Chris" sent me the following email this morning.
"Trisha...
Thanks very much for your reply and also i can see your willingness in this rent.We have decided to let you live in our house. As we have found your application very setisfactry and acceptable by my family So as we shall be giving you our house,pls again take care of the house so that i might be glad when moving to the house at the November 27th 2008.because we find your application accepted. However if you are ready to rent the house now,then that will not be a problem but we will advice you due to a responsible person like you, to be able to afford a Security Deposit of a two month upfront rent fee now to secure the property ,because many people have been comming to me in respect of the house. And also i will email you a Lease Agreement form which you fill and sign and send it back to me. And also we would like to send the following document to you via the Fedex courier service to the address you send to me and the tracking number will be sent to you, so that you can possible occupy our house,Pls once again,I am giving you this on trust and do not dissapoint me and i promise you that,you will love the house. So i am with the below document here with me. Please send the address which i will be sending the keys and the document to.Please kindly give me a call as soon as you get my email..+2348025932084.let me know when you are ready to make the payment, so i can forward on how to make the payment and my payment information.Here are the contents of the document that i will be shipping to you
1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
2)Paper/Permanent house form(Containing your reference details)
3)The house documetary file.
4)Payment Receipt.
So please do get back to me today so that I will let know the next step to take concerning the payment. I await your reply ASAP.Regard and God bless you!!! You can call us on how to make payment for the shippment of the Keys and Document to the house and kindly forward me your mailing address where you want the document to be sent to? Hope to read from you
Chris"
Do I want to call this joker? Hrmm.. I guess it's nice that I work with a VoIP company where I can spoof my callerID if needs be.
11.18.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 3.
READ PARTS 1 and 2 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
If you remember from the last post, we had just established that I really wanted to screw around with this guy that is trying to scam me. Below is the email that I sent to him.
I added some spelling and grammatical errors to make it sound as innocent as possible. The phone number I sent him is for the police chief in West Valley City, just in case he calls.
Now, we wait.
"Chris,
Thank you for your quick response to me mail in getting me the rental application. It is much simpler than many previous landlords have had me fill out before. I appreciate it very much. I hate filling out complex forms asking silly questions about my job history and rental history. It goes a lnog way for you to show that much trust in me. I trust you just as much!
Here isthe answers to the rental application:
1) Your Full Name : Trisha Fielding
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number : 544 Nt. Real St., West Valley City, Utah, 84119. Phone: 801-963-3255
3) Are you married Yes
4) How many people will be living in the house 6
5) Do you have a pet Yes. 6) Do you have a car Yes.
7) Occupation Day Care. My husband is a bouncer at a club.
8) What is your religion Catholic, although, you can't legally ask me that. Check the fair housing act of 1974. I don't really care though.
9) When are you planning to move in : November 27th would work great for us.
10) How many years lease will you be signing : 2 year lease.
I'm guessing that you'll want 2 mnoths rent sent to you for each year of lease that we're signing plus the pet deposit. If I did my math right, I'll need to send you $5400. Is that right? THis is such a goood deal that ki want to jump on it as soon as i possbly can.
i can mail a check to you in the mail today away if you send me an address.. Hrmm.. I"m not sure that it will get to africa soon enough for us to move into the house by the 27th. Maybe there's a way that we can send you the money faster. Ha ha ha! I just did a google search for fast ways to send money. There's a company that will send money to you directly. There's a place called western union that will do it for a fee. There's a location right by me. I haven't ever heard of it before... must have just sprung up overnight!
Can I subtract the fee from my deposit to you? I know it's a lot to ask, but, with the economy how it is, money will be a little tight if I have to pay more than $5400. The fee for that is $85. So, I'll send you $5315 if that's ok. Can you find out what info I need to send you the money from the western union company. Since this is such a good deal, I want to do it as quickly as I can before someone else beats me to it!
Trisha Fielding
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 2.
READ PART 1 (BELOW) BEFORE READING THIS POST!
If you remember from the last post about me not yet knowing that Trisha had written to the scam artist asking for more information and letting him know we were interested. Let's pick up the story from there...
So last night, I deleted the email thinking that everything was done and done with Mr. Scammy. I had posted some video games for sale on craigslist last night under Trisha's email address, so I wanted to check her email this morning to see if anyone was interested. When I checked her email, I saw an email from "Chris Scott." Interesting...
"Hello , Thanks for the response back to my mail, its really nice hearing from you that you shall be promising us that our house will be well taken care of and i really think you are the right person to rent my house and i will like to let you know that the house has been available since we were out of the house.. The programme will be running for 5yrs but as for me and my family, we will be staying up to 4yrs and half months and i think with this it's possible for you and your family to stay up to 3yrs or 4yrs or as you decide and also all the furniture are already moved out so the house is empty as at now and you are to movein with your own furniture. I will like to let you know that I traveled down to Africa with the keys so am really sorry for not being able to show you the inside of the house, please let me know if this is okay with you and also that the house is ready anytime as from now if you will like moving in this month. And the below is the final question that you must answer to qualify for this the rent of my house...
RENT APPLICATION FORM
1) Your Full Name :
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number :
3) Are you married
4) How many people will be living in the house
5) Do you have a pet
6) Do you have a car
7) Occupation
8) What is your religion
9) When are you planning to move in
10) How many years lease will you be signing
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that I can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.
Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you, please am giving you all this base on trust and again I will want you to stick to your words, you know that, we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand, so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this. Await your swift response
Thanks and God bless..
Regards..
Chris"
Oh, "Chris," you scalleywag. What a clever and insightful email you have sent me. Your "Rent Application Form" is so easy to fill out! I'm so thankful for that. Idiot.
I especially love the part when he asks what Religion I am. Good old Fair Housing Act of 1974. (It makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale, lease, or rental of housing, or to make housing unavailable-because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.)
I guess he wouldn't know that, being from Africa and all.
So, now is the debate. I know it's a scam. He thinks I'm an innocent, willing participant. How far should I take this?
The answer? As far as he'll let me.
To be continued...
If you remember from the last post about me not yet knowing that Trisha had written to the scam artist asking for more information and letting him know we were interested. Let's pick up the story from there...
So last night, I deleted the email thinking that everything was done and done with Mr. Scammy. I had posted some video games for sale on craigslist last night under Trisha's email address, so I wanted to check her email this morning to see if anyone was interested. When I checked her email, I saw an email from "Chris Scott." Interesting...
"Hello , Thanks for the response back to my mail, its really nice hearing from you that you shall be promising us that our house will be well taken care of and i really think you are the right person to rent my house and i will like to let you know that the house has been available since we were out of the house.. The programme will be running for 5yrs but as for me and my family, we will be staying up to 4yrs and half months and i think with this it's possible for you and your family to stay up to 3yrs or 4yrs or as you decide and also all the furniture are already moved out so the house is empty as at now and you are to movein with your own furniture. I will like to let you know that I traveled down to Africa with the keys so am really sorry for not being able to show you the inside of the house, please let me know if this is okay with you and also that the house is ready anytime as from now if you will like moving in this month. And the below is the final question that you must answer to qualify for this the rent of my house...
RENT APPLICATION FORM
1) Your Full Name :
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number :
3) Are you married
4) How many people will be living in the house
5) Do you have a pet
6) Do you have a car
7) Occupation
8) What is your religion
9) When are you planning to move in
10) How many years lease will you be signing
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that I can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.
Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you, please am giving you all this base on trust and again I will want you to stick to your words, you know that, we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand, so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this. Await your swift response
Thanks and God bless..
Regards..
Chris"
Oh, "Chris," you scalleywag. What a clever and insightful email you have sent me. Your "Rent Application Form" is so easy to fill out! I'm so thankful for that. Idiot.
I especially love the part when he asks what Religion I am. Good old Fair Housing Act of 1974. (It makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale, lease, or rental of housing, or to make housing unavailable-because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.)
I guess he wouldn't know that, being from Africa and all.
So, now is the debate. I know it's a scam. He thinks I'm an innocent, willing participant. How far should I take this?
The answer? As far as he'll let me.
To be continued...
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 1.
Let me start by saying that I hate people.
Trisha was browsing craigslist last week and stumbled across an incredible rental opportunity. I wish I still had the link, but i'm pretty sure that it was removed (you'll see why). The rental was for a 4600 square foot, 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom house in Herriman for $1300 per month. Incredible, I thought, but didn't really think about how good of a deal that would be, simply because we cannot afford $1300 bucks a month.
Trisha, being resourceful, reached out to some family members that are also looking to move into a place and thought that perhaps we could split the cost. I'm not going to get into the thousand other reasons that I didn't want to do this deal (moving in with family, etc.).
So Trisha emailed the guy back to get more information. No harm in that. This was the email he responded with:
"Hello,
Thanks for the email. I Chris Scott owns the house and also it is situated and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my Family to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the house as his or her own.
HOUSE ADDRESSES 14767 S Tangle Hill Rd Herriman UT, We are renting a beautiful 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom, fully finished basement home in Herriman Utah. It has upgraded kitchen, jetted master tub, fireplace, LR, FR, Den, DR, loft with bathroom and walk in closet. Many more upgrades, 3 car garage. It has great mountain views and in area that offers, tennis courts, club house, community pool, basketball courts that are all INCLUDED! I am flexible regarding the length of the lease. 6 mo., 1 yr., 2.yr, 3yr. etc. are all acceptable. I never increase the rental amount for good tenants..... All credit considered, all types of pet allowed and Additional monthly charge of $50 for pets.....You can drive down there to take a look ate it.We have left the US and we are currently in the West Africa for a program called 'World Conference Against Racism Youth Summit, Empowering youth for combating racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria and will last for 5yrs. It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that I found myself is very hard for me to explain. If you will be the right tenant to our house, we will get the keys and documents of the house sent to you via courier services as soon as all terms are settled.I will be online through out to get back to you as soon as you are able to get back to me. I would want to know how soon you would want to move in as I will be taking a 2-month upfront payment for the house. I am asking for $2,600 and I believe we should be able to help ourselves. I am accepting $2,600 including utilities because I want you to take a very good care of the house while I am away.
I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent over to me so that I can get the keys and papers sent to you via FedEx or ups e.t.c, also are you ready to rent it now or when Await your reply. I will be willing to send the inside view of the building if you demands for it.
I could let you remain in the house till I come back if you are a good tenant and you can reach me on +2348025932084
Thanks and awaits your mail as soon as possible
Chris Scott"
Ok. So, prior to me reading his email, Trisha (unbeknownst to me) responsed back letting him know that we were interested in the place and some other information letting him know our situation. Since Trisha doesn't use the computer very much, she hasn't been exposed to the millions of scams out there. After she had written back to him, she let me know about the email he sent and his situation. As she told me about him moving to Aftica, it started to all come together. 1300 bucks is WAY too cheap for something of that size. And then I read the email.
So, it became immediately clear to me that it was a scam on the 8th word of the email. Literally. There was an extra space after the name "Chris Scott." That gave it away for me. That told me that this was a form letter and he had just pasted in his name. Simple. Stupid. Then after reading the remainder of the paragraph, it just became more and more clear. The horrible grammar and spelling. Obvious? To me, yes, but I can see how this could play on one's heart strings, and with the current economy, a good deal is hard not to jump at. He didn't (to this point) mention anything about wiring him money, so it really isn't *that* obvious.
To prove to Trisha that it was a scam, I did a couple Google searches. This is the first one that I found. So the house was up for sale for $527,000. Yeah.. that confirms that the $1300 a month was just silly. Trisha still wasn't convinced, so I searched for his phone number (as was listed in the email). One result. The result happens to be a Craigslister that found that it was a scam. The person posted the email with the EXACT same response except a different name, address and description (as can be seen on the previous link).
That's what I thought would be the end of the story.. But this is TO BE CONTINUED...
Trisha was browsing craigslist last week and stumbled across an incredible rental opportunity. I wish I still had the link, but i'm pretty sure that it was removed (you'll see why). The rental was for a 4600 square foot, 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom house in Herriman for $1300 per month. Incredible, I thought, but didn't really think about how good of a deal that would be, simply because we cannot afford $1300 bucks a month.
Trisha, being resourceful, reached out to some family members that are also looking to move into a place and thought that perhaps we could split the cost. I'm not going to get into the thousand other reasons that I didn't want to do this deal (moving in with family, etc.).
So Trisha emailed the guy back to get more information. No harm in that. This was the email he responded with:
"Hello,
Thanks for the email. I Chris Scott owns the house and also it is situated and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my Family to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the house as his or her own.
HOUSE ADDRESSES 14767 S Tangle Hill Rd Herriman UT, We are renting a beautiful 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom, fully finished basement home in Herriman Utah. It has upgraded kitchen, jetted master tub, fireplace, LR, FR, Den, DR, loft with bathroom and walk in closet. Many more upgrades, 3 car garage. It has great mountain views and in area that offers, tennis courts, club house, community pool, basketball courts that are all INCLUDED! I am flexible regarding the length of the lease. 6 mo., 1 yr., 2.yr, 3yr. etc. are all acceptable. I never increase the rental amount for good tenants..... All credit considered, all types of pet allowed and Additional monthly charge of $50 for pets.....You can drive down there to take a look ate it.We have left the US and we are currently in the West Africa for a program called 'World Conference Against Racism Youth Summit, Empowering youth for combating racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria and will last for 5yrs. It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that I found myself is very hard for me to explain. If you will be the right tenant to our house, we will get the keys and documents of the house sent to you via courier services as soon as all terms are settled.I will be online through out to get back to you as soon as you are able to get back to me. I would want to know how soon you would want to move in as I will be taking a 2-month upfront payment for the house. I am asking for $2,600 and I believe we should be able to help ourselves. I am accepting $2,600 including utilities because I want you to take a very good care of the house while I am away.
I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent over to me so that I can get the keys and papers sent to you via FedEx or ups e.t.c, also are you ready to rent it now or when Await your reply. I will be willing to send the inside view of the building if you demands for it.
I could let you remain in the house till I come back if you are a good tenant and you can reach me on +2348025932084
Thanks and awaits your mail as soon as possible
Chris Scott"
Ok. So, prior to me reading his email, Trisha (unbeknownst to me) responsed back letting him know that we were interested in the place and some other information letting him know our situation. Since Trisha doesn't use the computer very much, she hasn't been exposed to the millions of scams out there. After she had written back to him, she let me know about the email he sent and his situation. As she told me about him moving to Aftica, it started to all come together. 1300 bucks is WAY too cheap for something of that size. And then I read the email.
So, it became immediately clear to me that it was a scam on the 8th word of the email. Literally. There was an extra space after the name "Chris Scott." That gave it away for me. That told me that this was a form letter and he had just pasted in his name. Simple. Stupid. Then after reading the remainder of the paragraph, it just became more and more clear. The horrible grammar and spelling. Obvious? To me, yes, but I can see how this could play on one's heart strings, and with the current economy, a good deal is hard not to jump at. He didn't (to this point) mention anything about wiring him money, so it really isn't *that* obvious.
To prove to Trisha that it was a scam, I did a couple Google searches. This is the first one that I found. So the house was up for sale for $527,000. Yeah.. that confirms that the $1300 a month was just silly. Trisha still wasn't convinced, so I searched for his phone number (as was listed in the email). One result. The result happens to be a Craigslister that found that it was a scam. The person posted the email with the EXACT same response except a different name, address and description (as can be seen on the previous link).
That's what I thought would be the end of the story.. But this is TO BE CONTINUED...
Please welcome, Ming Ming Featherbottom!
As you can see, she's a cute lil' thing. This was taken with my brand new camera that I recieved in the mail yesterday. I'm totally stoked about it.
She's getting tubby! She was so small when we got her. Dunno if she's trying to bulk up for winter, but the hour of treadmill running that she does in the evening times isn't burning all of her calories. She's cute though.
This second picture gives you a better idea as to why her last name is Featherbottom.
11.13.2008
Blog Genderanalyzer.com
Oh the things that technology has brought us! Check out http://www.genderanalyzer.com. Put in the URL to your blog, and it will quickly assess your blog and determine whether it was written by a man or a woman.
My results: We think http://www.nixlife.info is written by a man (73%).
I ran this yesterday and it came back with a result of 60% sure that it was written by a man. I guess writing about El Pollo Loco and how many people share a name with me is "manly." Hrmm.
Interesting results:
http://philandgailfamilyblog.blogspot.com (family blog) = written by a woman (84%).
http://fireteeth.blogspot.com/ (David's blog) = written by a man (51%), however it's quite gender neutral. (Yeah, he's pretty femme though, so this isn't that much of a surprise). ;)
http://thecrazycrandalls.blogspot.com (Heather's blog) = written by a woman (66%).
http://randbfielding.blogspot.com (Brandon's blog) = written by a man (77%).
http://themanyadventuresofus.blogspot.com (Heather and Reed's blog) = written by a woman (52%), however it's quite gender neutral.
http://nunleyfam.blogspot.com (Britta and Nun's blog) = written by a woman (78%).
My results: We think http://www.nixlife.info is written by a man (73%).
I ran this yesterday and it came back with a result of 60% sure that it was written by a man. I guess writing about El Pollo Loco and how many people share a name with me is "manly." Hrmm.
Interesting results:
http://philandgailfamilyblog.blogspot.com (family blog) = written by a woman (84%).
http://fireteeth.blogspot.com/ (David's blog) = written by a man (51%), however it's quite gender neutral. (Yeah, he's pretty femme though, so this isn't that much of a surprise). ;)
http://thecrazycrandalls.blogspot.com (Heather's blog) = written by a woman (66%).
http://randbfielding.blogspot.com (Brandon's blog) = written by a man (77%).
http://themanyadventuresofus.blogspot.com (Heather and Reed's blog) = written by a woman (52%), however it's quite gender neutral.
http://nunleyfam.blogspot.com (Britta and Nun's blog) = written by a woman (78%).
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