YOUNGTOWN - He tried to rent out his home in the valley but became the target of an internet scam instead.
The scam centers on people responding to ads placed on the web site Craigslist. Posters say they're looking for a place to live, but they're really looking for gullible homeowners
Lex Anderson is the justice of the peace in Youngtown. He's also a property owner who gave FOX 10 a call after he listed a couple of his rental homes on Craigslist.
"These are a couple of houses that I have for rent so they are totally legitimate postings," says Anderson.
Anderson called us because some of the responses to his listings came from out of the country.
"When you get the responses that are email responses that are overseas that should be one of your first clues that it's probably a scam."
He invited us to follow along as he tried to confirm his theory -- so we answered the response from a man named "Louis" who claimed to be in England.
He said he was moving his family to Arizona in one month's time for a job and was looking for a place to live.
But over the next few days, various e-mail communications revealed some signs that all might not be on the up and up.
For one, the potential renter was asking questions about the property that had been answered in the original ad.
"How close is it to shopping malls, banks, airport, grocery stores, etc., is the property furnished? Well you can see from my photos it's not furnished," says Anderson. "These are all kind of questions a renter would ask but at the same time you've already answered those by your first posting so that's what makes it a little bit suspicious."
Despite the obvious flaws, we e-mailed "Louis" and agreed to let him rent the house.
Then things took an even more bizarre turn.
"Louis" said he was going to send a cashier's check for the first months' rent, a security deposit, and a whole lot more.
"This is a check overpayment scheme, its fairly common," says Secret Service Special Agent Kevin Rice, who heads up a multi-agency task force in Phoenix that focuses on electronic crimes.
"There are criminals out there who are using today's technology for bad purposes and that's our job to try and thwart some of that."
"Louis" said he was going to send us a cashier's check for nearly $7,000. That was about $5,000 more than we were asking. But there was a catch.
The excess to be remitted to a home decorator via Western Union money transfer.
"Louis" said he was sending the extra money to cover the costs of decorating, shipping furniture and other various moving expenses -- expenses that Anderson was supposed to pay for out of his own bank account after receiving the cashier's check from "Louis."
A few days later, as promised, a check arrived in an envelope with a London postmark.
But the check itself had a yellow tinge, like old paper. And even stranger, it was drawn out of the western bank, located not in England, but in Silver City, New Mexico.
FOX 10 called the bank. A bank spokesperson confirmed that the check was a counterfeit.
Meanwhile, the e-mails from "Louis" were getting more and more erratic.
"Once they've got you on the line they want to keep you on the line and what they want you to do is to act as quickly as you can before you come to your senses," says Rice.
He was worried that he hadn't heard from us. Did we get the check? Had we sent our payments to the three people in England who were allegedly helping with his move?
"If I was a betting man they're wiring money to London and the second that money gets wired to England it's being wired to some third country probably a country that doesn't have extradition with the U.S."
We even received an e-mail in all upper case letters seemingly panicked that his "family" wouldn't have a place to live when they arrived in Arizona.
But when we still didn't respond, the e-mails from "Louis" stopped. Apparently he realized we hadn't fallen for his scam.
"They'll try to keep you on the hook for a couple days. After that they don't want to waste more efforts on you, they're going to go on to the next person," says Rice.
Judge Anderson didn't lose any money in the scam. But if he did, would there be any legal recourse for him to take?
Unfortunately, with an investigation that would span at least two continents -- the answer is probably no.
"Once it goes out of the country we don't have any jurisdiction at all," says Anderson.
"Ultimately it becomes resource-driven as well in these times of shrinking budgets," says Rice.
But just because Lex Anderson didn't become a victim, that doesn't mean the bad guys are going to stop trying.
"There are probably a lot of people who get scammed and they're too embarrassed to admit it. But I think if you start looking you'll find its millions or in to the billions that Americans are losing to these overseas scammers."
"They may send out a thousand of these emails and all they have to do is get one or two and they make a few thousand here a few thousand there and that's why they do it."
What
Source www.myfoxphoenix.com/
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The scam centers on people responding to ads placed on the web site Craigslist. Posters say they're looking for a place to live, but they're really looking for gullible homeowners
Lex Anderson is the justice of the peace in Youngtown. He's also a property owner who gave FOX 10 a call after he listed a couple of his rental homes on Craigslist.
"These are a couple of houses that I have for rent so they are totally legitimate postings," says Anderson.
Anderson called us because some of the responses to his listings came from out of the country.
"When you get the responses that are email responses that are overseas that should be one of your first clues that it's probably a scam."
He invited us to follow along as he tried to confirm his theory -- so we answered the response from a man named "Louis" who claimed to be in England.
He said he was moving his family to Arizona in one month's time for a job and was looking for a place to live.
But over the next few days, various e-mail communications revealed some signs that all might not be on the up and up.
For one, the potential renter was asking questions about the property that had been answered in the original ad.
"How close is it to shopping malls, banks, airport, grocery stores, etc., is the property furnished? Well you can see from my photos it's not furnished," says Anderson. "These are all kind of questions a renter would ask but at the same time you've already answered those by your first posting so that's what makes it a little bit suspicious."
Despite the obvious flaws, we e-mailed "Louis" and agreed to let him rent the house.
Then things took an even more bizarre turn.
"Louis" said he was going to send a cashier's check for the first months' rent, a security deposit, and a whole lot more.
"This is a check overpayment scheme, its fairly common," says Secret Service Special Agent Kevin Rice, who heads up a multi-agency task force in Phoenix that focuses on electronic crimes.
"There are criminals out there who are using today's technology for bad purposes and that's our job to try and thwart some of that."
"Louis" said he was going to send us a cashier's check for nearly $7,000. That was about $5,000 more than we were asking. But there was a catch.
The excess to be remitted to a home decorator via Western Union money transfer.
"Louis" said he was sending the extra money to cover the costs of decorating, shipping furniture and other various moving expenses -- expenses that Anderson was supposed to pay for out of his own bank account after receiving the cashier's check from "Louis."
A few days later, as promised, a check arrived in an envelope with a London postmark.
But the check itself had a yellow tinge, like old paper. And even stranger, it was drawn out of the western bank, located not in England, but in Silver City, New Mexico.
FOX 10 called the bank. A bank spokesperson confirmed that the check was a counterfeit.
Meanwhile, the e-mails from "Louis" were getting more and more erratic.
"Once they've got you on the line they want to keep you on the line and what they want you to do is to act as quickly as you can before you come to your senses," says Rice.
He was worried that he hadn't heard from us. Did we get the check? Had we sent our payments to the three people in England who were allegedly helping with his move?
"If I was a betting man they're wiring money to London and the second that money gets wired to England it's being wired to some third country probably a country that doesn't have extradition with the U.S."
We even received an e-mail in all upper case letters seemingly panicked that his "family" wouldn't have a place to live when they arrived in Arizona.
But when we still didn't respond, the e-mails from "Louis" stopped. Apparently he realized we hadn't fallen for his scam.
"They'll try to keep you on the hook for a couple days. After that they don't want to waste more efforts on you, they're going to go on to the next person," says Rice.
Judge Anderson didn't lose any money in the scam. But if he did, would there be any legal recourse for him to take?
Unfortunately, with an investigation that would span at least two continents -- the answer is probably no.
"Once it goes out of the country we don't have any jurisdiction at all," says Anderson.
"Ultimately it becomes resource-driven as well in these times of shrinking budgets," says Rice.
But just because Lex Anderson didn't become a victim, that doesn't mean the bad guys are going to stop trying.
"There are probably a lot of people who get scammed and they're too embarrassed to admit it. But I think if you start looking you'll find its millions or in to the billions that Americans are losing to these overseas scammers."
"They may send out a thousand of these emails and all they have to do is get one or two and they make a few thousand here a few thousand there and that's why they do it."
What
Source www.myfoxphoenix.com/
1 Next 2
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