Apartment rental scam

Editor’s note: In the following letter, ITN is withholding the identities of certain individuals.

In late 2013 my wife, Sharon, and I started planning a trip to Hong Kong and sought to rent an apartment, as, versus staying in a hotel room, we like the extra space, and occasionally we like to cook a meal.

We tried various websites that list holiday apartments and, at first, didn’t find quite what we were looking for. Then, one day, we found an apartment on Craigslist.com that sounded promising. As in ads posted by others, there was a description of the apartment and photographs of the interior. 

Thus began a series of emails back and forth to Danny, who said he was the apartment owner and lived in Hong Kong. 

Later, we happened to see another ad for the same apartment but listed at a higher rental price. Danny explained that that was an old ad that had run during the peak tourist season, which had passed, and he’d just not taken it down yet. That satisfied us.

The total rent for the apartment was to be $1,650. Danny requested a deposit of $1,000 be sent to Mr. X in Vermilion, Ohio, who he said handled money transactions for him in America.

There were a couple of red flags, so we had a friend in Hong Kong go to the address of the apartment. Our friend verified that there was an apartment building at the address given us, but he did not verify that Danny actually owned an apartment in the building.

Danny wanted full payment in late 2013 for our trip in February 2014, but we were uncomfortable with that, so he agreed that the remaining $650 of the rental fee could be paid on Jan. 15. We signed what appeared to be a legitimate rental agreement with him.

As Jan. 15 neared, Danny seemed more and more anxious to be paid, stating that there were others who wanted the apartment if we didn’t. We assured him we intended to pay by the deadline.  

He then asked that we send the final payment of $650 by cashier’s check or money order to a Ms. Y in Pflugerville, Texas, claiming she was his accountant. We were uneasy about doing so, but we decided that sometimes you have no choice but to accept certain risks when making travel arrangements half a world away. We sent the check to Ms. Y.

After that, our emails to Danny and Mr. X were not answered, and Ms. Y didn’t acknowledge receipt of the money. After about a week we were becoming anxious.

It was at that time that we got a letter from the police in Pflugerville explaining that the US postal authorities had been investigating Ms. Y for mail fraud for some time and that they had intercepted our letter to her and confiscated our check, which the police returned to us. That’s when we called our bank.

Amazingly, Mr. X had deposited our first check, for $1,000, in his personal bank account, so our bank’s fraud department was easily able to track him down. It turned out that Mr. X and Danny (his alias) were the same person, and he was under investigation by the Vermilion police for Internet scamming. 

Through the Pflugerville police, we learned that Mr. X and Ms. Y were part of a “Nigerian-type scam,” with victims across America. The Vermilion police, working with the FBI and IRS, were discovering more and more victims.

On June 17, 2014, Mr. X appeared in the Vermilion Municipal Court to face felony charges for defrauding us out of $1,000 for an apartment he did not own in Hong Kong. (Other victims’ cases were being heard separately.)

Mr. X was charged with telecommunications fraud, a first-degree misdemeanor. He pleaded “no contest,” was fined $250 plus court costs and was put on six months’ probation, with the stipulation that he make restitution to us or face further punishment.

Although the sentence was light, we are nevertheless grateful for this outcome, as we truly felt we’d never see our $1,000 again. 

We found out that in order to file a fraud complaint with the police in another state, you have to file it with your local police, then they will pass it along to the out-of-state police. 

Our local police had had experience with people being scammed through Craigslist and were very firm in advising us that no one should ever try to rent an apartment abroad through Craigslist as we did. 

My advice to ITN readers is to use extreme caution in renting accommodations from ads on the Internet. Never rent an apartment abroad without finding some way to check that it actually exists and that you are truly dealing with the owner or his or her agent. 

For example, guidebooks sometimes list rental properties the authors have actually visited. The national tourist bureau or the chamber of commerce at your destination also might have lists of legitimate rental units. However, never rely on testimonials from other visitors that the apartment renter has posted on the Web, as they easily could have been faked.  

Eventually, we found an acceptable apartment in Hong Kong through Airbnb.com, which has safeguards against such scams.

After more than a half century of traveling the world, I’m as savvy as any other ITN reader, yet I was duped, proving it can happen to anyone.

STEVEN COLE

Lowell, MI 

At time of publication, the Vermilion, Ohio, Municipal Court had collected from “Danny/Mr. X” $450 of the $1,000 owed to Mr. Cole.

The FBI has a list of tips for keeping apartment renters safe from Internet fraud; visit www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud. If you believe you are a victim of Internet fraud, you can file a report with the FBI at their Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov… or you can contact your local FBI field office, the location of which can be found at www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field.

Craigslist has a webpage dedicated to preventing scams, with links for reporting actual or suspected fraud; visit www.craigslist.org/about/scams. 

Though the fraud committed against Mr. Cole did not involve wire transfers, many scammers online will ask to be paid in such a way. Among a number of tips for avoiding scams, Craigslist includes this one: “Never wire funds via Western Union, MoneyGram or other wire services.” Not even banks can offer wire transfers in which the recovery of your money can be guaranteed if you are the victim of fraud.

The best way to protect yourself from fraud is to deal only with someone you can meet in person… and only with the person with whom you have communicated, not an agent or associate whose identity you cannot verify.