I Need Your Room - Here Is My Picture!!

When I post an ad on Craigslist for potential tenants for an open room in one of the two places, the first 5 responses I get, and probably 75% of the responses overall, fall under the ol' Nigerian wirefraud scam. Basically, the way this works is that over in some African country (again, I think Nigeria is the big one), someone pays a group of people to go into a computer lab and respond to Craigslist ads. They respond posing as either a model, a doctor, or a mining company employee saying they need a "nice, cool room" to stay in when they come to the United States from Africa/England/Spain/etc. To prove how much they want the room and how trustworthy they are, they offer to get their American "agent" (either their former boss, their friend in the US, or some combination of that) to pay the landlord their deposit and first month's rent. Sounds great, but, usually the way they do this is to claim that this agent owes them money, and so will pay that money to me, the naive landlord. I deposit this money, and then send them a check (or wire) with the money they're owed minus the deposit/rent money. At this point, they, of course, now have my banking information, and can clean me out. Of course, the joke's on them - I'm broke!! Anyway, this is basically an offshoot of the ol' "Deposed Royal Family" scam, and, although I can't believe this ever works, it must or they wouldn't keep doing it, right?

So, as I said before I get tons of these, and, although they are getting better at making their emails seem more legit, it's still pretty easy to spot. Occasionally, however, I get a rare treat. Sometimes, the "models" send pictures along with their email, to further entice me into renting the room to them. So, what I've done this fine Friday morning, is provided, verbatim (and verpicturetem) the latest email I've received, under the subject line: "I need your room - Here is my picture!!" (That's her picture above - yowza!!!) If/when I get more funny fake responses, or picturegrams, I'll post those as well. Enjoy!!

HELLO OWNER
MY NAME IS TESSY SMITH, AM FROM (LONDON),INUNITED KINGDOM AND TO BE PRECISED I LIVE IN OLYMPIA ALL MY LIFE AND I ALSO STUDIED IN OLYMPIA .I MODEL FOR MY OCCUPATION AND I AM A PROFESSIONAL MODEL ,AM CURENTLY IN WEST AFRICA MODELING FOR HUGO BOSS AND I WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS MYCONTRACT WILL BE OVER AND I WILL BE SO HAPPY TO RENTYOUR ROOM BEFORE THEN CUS I WILL LOVE TO COME IN DIRECT THERE AND HAVE THE ROOM RENT ALREADY..........ABOUT THE PAYMENT ,MY LAST BOSS IS READY TO MAKE THE PAYMENT TO YOU HE HIS ALSO IN THE STATE THERE WITH YOU I WILL JUST INFORM HIM THAT I HAVE SEEN A PLACE TO RENT I PROMISE YOU HE WE MAKE THE PAY OUT TO YOUR LOCATION.I MODELLED FOR HIM AND IS OWING ME SO I WILL JUST TELL HIM TO SEND YOU A CHECK FOR THE PAYMENT OF THE ROOM.I WILL ALSO LOVE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ROOM,THE THING YOU HAVE THERE WHEN I WILL RENT IT AND HOW MUCH I SHOULD PAY IN FULL ,AND I WILL ALSO L OVE IF YOU CAN PLS HELP ME SEND THE PIX OF THE ROOM TO ME I WILL BE SO HAPPY TO RENT THE ROOM .THX SO MUCH LOOKING FORWARD FOR YOUR REPLY PLZ I WILL LIKE U TO REPLY ME BACK ON MY EMAIL. YOU CAN CALL ME AT ANYTIME ON THIS NUMBER(2348026648944 )I WILL LIKE TO HEAR GOOD FROM YOU SOON

Yours Faithfully

Tessy