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Craigslist Scammers in Search For Christchurch, New Zealand Accommodation

Let’s face it… there are 7-10 real mean, nasty people in the world.

They just move around a lot, so it’s sometimes difficult to avoid them.

What’s nice about the Internet for scammers is that they can be in multiple places online, and be multiple people, all at once.

The only ads on Craigslist for apartments that we found in Christchurch, responded, and got responses back to, were from scammers.

The email addresses of these scammers are:

I realize they can change their email addresses tomorrow, but for anyone googling these email addresses to see if it’s safe to do business with them, or rent an apartment/house from them, you should know that they are scammers:

The exchange I had with one of them before deciding to simply make this post to warn others is below.

Do not do business with anyone who does not or can not have a physical person present at the address where they want you to move in.

I can guarantee that there are MUCH better people for you to be dealing with.  These people aren’t even in Christchurch, may not have ever even been to New Zealand.  They are probably posting ads like this on message boards across the Internet, for places they’ve never been.

General words of advice:

  • Never send money before seeing an apartment, house, tour, etc.  If you have to secure your spot with a deposit, make sure the deposit is small and do so using a credit card or PayPal.  This will give you the possibility for recourse if things go bad.  However, generally speaking, it’s better not to pay anything until you can actually see the place.  Many hotels/motels, and even some long-term apartments we’ve stayed with don’t expect full payment until you’re checking out, but they all will let us see a room or apartment before asking for money.  Anytime we’ve not followed this rule, it’s not turned out well.
  • Never accept keys through the mail without meeting someone or their representative on-site.

Once again, these email addresses are scammers:

And here’s my experience:And here’s my experience:

Hi!

I’m emailing about your apartment listing in Christchurch.  We are here in Christchurch now staying with some friends and are wanting to come and take a look.

Can you let me know more the area where this apartment is located? (Which neighborhood?)  Also, the apartment is $145 NZD/week, correct?

What does that include/exclude?  Is it furnished?  Does that include electric/internet/other utilities?

Here are some places we’ve stayed and their experience with us:
http://carrieandjonathan.com/testimonials-from-places-we-have-stayed/

Please let me know more at your convenience, as well as when we might come to take a look.

Thank-you!

—————

Thanks for your email and it is my gladness hearing from you, am Rev Edward i owner the house you are making inquiry of, Actually I resided in the house with my family,such as my wife and my only daughter before and presently we had packed due to my transfer from my working place and now situated in the London and presently my house is still available for rent for 600per month including the utilities like hydro,washer and security,it is furnished.
More so Now, i went for a Crusade in Africa and i will like you to get in touch with my wife in London for more discussion, as she is with the keys and the document to the house. Pls i want you to note know that we’re kind and honest family, and also spent alot on our property that we want to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own,is that taken, it is not the money the main problem but want you to keep it tidy all the time, so that i will be glad to see it neat when i came for a check up. I also want you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word.
Email my wife Lucy on ( [email protected] or  [email protected] ) and she will attends to you better, pls make sure you send email to both address, because im contacting nz to remove the ad from their site!
Thanks and you are welcome…..
Regards
—————
We are here in Christchurch now staying with some friends and are wanting to come and take a look at the apartment you have listed.

Can you let me know more the area where this apartment is located? (Which neighborhood?)

Also, the apartment is $600 NZD/month, correct?

What does that include/exclude?  Does that include internet?

Please let me know more at your convenience, as well as when we might come to take a look.

Thank-you,

—————
Hello,

Thanks for your response,my name is Lucy,my husband owned the apt you are interested in, we are given it out for rent but we are looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of the house for us. It was due to our transfer that makes us to leave the house, as we are not after the money for the rent,but wanted it to be clean/tidy all the time, interested person that will rent it, will take care of the house as if it were its own.

So for now,am here in our new house  in London,England, and also with the keys/documents of the house,we try to look for an agent that we can give this document before we left but could not see, and we don’t want our house to be used any how present, that is why we took it along to us here, and as you know that my husband over in Africa for a mission of God,so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the house.So get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home.

Hope you are okay with the price of 600 monthly with hydro,heat laundry facilities,air condition and so on.

I look forward to hearing from you asap, so that i can forward you a application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent,also are you ready to rent it now or when? Tell me about your and what you do for living  and where?

Thanks And God Bless You

Await your reply,
Lucy

(“Lucy” also sent pictures which were clearly from some real estate company)
—————
Hi Lucy,

Thank-you for your response!

We actually have a home in the United states and are spending two years traveling the world.

We work in marketing, using the Internet to work wherever we are in the world.

Can you tell me what part of the city this rental is in?  Even better would be an address, but just the part of town it’s in would be great.

We are ready to move as soon as possible.

Can you please forward me the application so I can get started on it and get it back to you as soon as possible?

Thank-you,

—————
where are you at the moment, and what do you do for living and where?

Lucy
I ended the communication at this point as “Lucy” did not answer my questions about the location of the apartment, and was clearly attempting to use the credibility of “God bless you” to get more trust from me than he/she deserved.

5 thoughts on “Craigslist Scammers in Search For Christchurch, New Zealand Accommodation

  1. Adam

    Seriously…why did you even reply to the first email? The grammer sounds just like the Nigerian “Inheritance” scams… 🙂

    1. strive4impact Post author

      I knew it was a scam with the first email as well. Just wanted to see how much information I could get out of them – was hoping they would send their “application form” so I could post it as well. Yah… definitely thinking this one originated from Nigeria… one way or another.

  2. BW

    I answered an ad of the very same type, when I was searching for a house to rent locally. The response was also from a “Reverend” in Africa on a Mission (I think the ‘Mission’ is to scam money from the gullible). From the content of the reply message, I was immediately suspicious. The ad had a house address, so I drove there – a long distance for me, in a remote rural area. I stopped at the house, the owner came out immediately, and I handed her a print-out of the ad. She said that two other people had previously stopped by to inquire about renting. The lady had no idea her house was being advertised. This also happened to another owner – there were photos of her house on the ad, but when a friend called to inquire about the fabulous rent amount, the owner didn’t know it was being advertised.

    1. strive4impact Post author

      It’s really a shame that these people damage humanity this way. I have found some great things through Craigslist (including places to stay). Unfortunately for some, this sort of scam will be their first experience with using an online lookup tool like Craigslist, and it makes them not only distrustful of web sites and the Internet, but of other people in general.

      BW, I’m sorry for the really negative experience you had, even if the scammers will never apologize for it themselves.

      Can anyone else reading this think of solutions for dealing with the root of this issue (the scammers), rather than simply trying to inform would-be victims, who often don’t find out until they’ve already become victims?

      Warmest,

      Jonathan

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