So, I was almost a victim of a scam.
My fiance and I currently live with his sister, her boyfriend and their two-year-old daughter. Our lease is up in March, and it is a known fact that we will be all moving out at that time. Pat (my fiance) and I have been searching already, even though it is early. We have been checking various sites such as apartments.com, Craigslist, and Google. The other night Pat and I found an amazing deal! $800 a month for a 3BR Cape house in Gloucester with a beautiful yard, den, new appliances, etc. We wrote to the people and even said that it sounded too good to be true. The person responded and said that they had moved to Thailand for missionary work and needed someone to take care of the home until they returned home in 4 years. They had the key with them in Thailand, as they could not find an agent to hold it and the documents before their move. They basically stressed that they were not after the money, but wanted to make sure that the renters took extra good care of the house and were responsible tenants.
When Pat and I heard all this, we were SO excited!! A house for $800 that allowed pets and was in a nice neighborhood? Wow! Although we were excited, we also knew something didn't sound right. We were especially tipped off at the fact that the person didn't hire an agent and the keys were thousands upon thousands miles away. The writing in the email was also very iffy. Common words were spelled incorrectly, I was left uncapitalized and I was referred to as "dear" several times. However, throughout all the sketchy parts, Pat and I wanted to give the people the benefit of the doubt.
That's when my dad, being the smart man that he is, suggested we check the city's assessor's site and see if those people were listed as the home's owners. They were - in 1984-2008, when they then sold the house to another couple. Right there we knew it was obviously a scam. The people on the other line were either A.) the real former owners or B.) someone using their name. My father and I brought the scam to the police department's attention in hopes that they could help prevent people from sending the requested $500 security deposit. The police said that there isn't much they could do, as it was online with no real way to track the source. They did say that they will inform the truthful and current owners so that they know their address has been the figure of a scam, little known to them.
The moral of the story is that scum pulls scams. Seriously. I am so enraged about this right now. Pat and I obviously knew to triple check the source before we sent any money to "Thailand" (although the people are really probably in Salem), but others probably sent the money without checking in on it. It's jerks like this that ruin it for everyone. Now that this happened, I am very hesitant on checking apartments online, although 99% of the posters are probably legit people with fine purposes. Now that this one person tried to pull this, other legitimate landlords with lose business because people are too sketched out by online sources.
Watch who you're talking with online!! It's common sense, but many people forget that!
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