Scamwatch issued an alert about this scammer back in 2008, but new victims continue to come forward. This posting appeared today on the Lonely Planet...
Scamwatch issued an alert about this scammer back in 2008, but new victims continue to come forward. This posting appeared today on the Lonely Planet forum. We can only say it again: NEVER SEND MONEY VIA WESTERN UNION:
Hi All,I posted an ad on Craigslist looking for an apartment to rent in Paris for the upcoming long Easter weekend. After sorting through many responses, we found an affordable place in a good location. The person offering the apartment sent us a photocopy of her passport and a legitimate tenancy contract. She also sent the full address of the apartment and photos of the place.They asked for the rent and security deposit upfront, which wasn't a lot of cash. We talked them down on the security deposit. We didn't think this was fishy considering we did the same thing when successfully renting an apartment in London.After signing the tenancy agreement, we sent the money via western union to who they said was their lawyer in Madrid, Spain. The woman said it was her mother's apartment that she was renting out and that her mother lived in London. We had requested that we give the money to her mother in person since we also live in London, but they refused to do this. They said she was too busy to meet up. I figured she might not want to meet strangers, but also thought she would appreciate meeting the people who would be staying at her flat.Since sending the money, we haven't heard a word from the woman we were speaking with. We have contacted her via email 4-5 times in the last week with no response. We have tried tracking down phone numbers for her, the lawyer and the mother as we have their names and addresses - or what we think are real names and addresses.We feel like this might be a scam now. What do we do? We are booking hotel reservations as back up. But we are not happy about the potential of losing all of our money!!.- - - - - - - - - - - - -Looks like we were officially scammed. The woman we dealt with shows up on a list of online scammers:Jose Stephany FerrariaIf only we had checked that first.http://parishousingscamwatch.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/updated-list-of-scammers-lurking-on-craigslist-paris/
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