rental scam

Here's a new spin on an old scam: I saw a craigslist listing for an apartment. After verifying that the broker was indeed a bonified employee of a major NYC rental agency I met him in Murry Hill. He took me on a tour until I found a nice place just shy of too-good-to-be-true and decided on it. He had all the props of a legitimite agent, business cards, rental agency documents,application with... [more]

Here's a new spin on an old scam: I saw a craigslist listing for an apartment. After verifying that the broker was indeed a bonified employee of a major NYC rental agency I met him in Murry Hill. He took me on a tour until I found a nice place just shy of too-good-to-be-true and decided on it. He had all the props of a legitimite agent, business cards, rental agency documents,application with letterhead, keys, business card, etc that furher legitimized him beyond my verification. He collected $300 in deposit and told me I would hear the application status the next day. The next day he calls me and tells me that his boss has cocerns about the application since it is not usual for the landlord to waive last month's rent even if aI did have stellar credit and his boss said I should beef-up my application with an additional $800 to prove that "I was serious". I replied that I am so serious that I was prepared to go into the office with cashiers checks payable to the landlord that very moment and sign a lease. . This stymied him as he used the "the cell phone call is going to drop as I am heading into a tunnel " excuse. He did call back with a different spin, saying that I could even send the 800 electronically to the "agency account". I rebuffed him by asking him to have his boss call me. He knew he rang some bells as he instructed me via text messages that, after all, my application was fine, as he wanted to dissuade me from calling the office directly as he knew his scam might unravel before he could blow town. Last text message was "application on bosses desk, looks great! Expect answer in a few hours or next morning!". This was all to buy time to clear out of town. In fact, he did submit the paperwork, sans cash (presumably to ease any concern should I call the office directly). The next day I get a call from the agency saying they have a problem with my application. I was busy and I couldnot hear them out. Later that night, the president of the rental agency called me personnaly and said the the broker "Tim" was a trainee, had no authorization to show apartments directly, had no authorization to show off that apartment especially at that price ($300 below market) and definetly was not allowed to collect any money and had seemed to have disappeared. He was extremely apologetic, made promises to make me whole, and did immediately cut a check for $300 dollars that he never got from "TIM". The next day I called up the president and said that although I certainly wish his screening process was more rigorous, I bore him no animosity, yet I still had to file a police report against "TIM" as I was afraid that TIM might even try to become me as he had copies of my ID and financial paperwork. I did and detectives are pursuing him on petty larceny/attempted grand larceny/identity theft beefs. In my opinion, I think this is what happened: Scammer enters real estate agency as a Trainee and gets legitamite access to ID, business cards, documents, official letterhead on applications etc. He then illegitamately mines keys, doorman contacts, listings and does the heavy sell on the weekend days when the office is asleep and seriously short staffed. Makes many appointments and offers discounted apartments. He collects as many deposits as he can and the next day persuades everybody to wire him money into a fake account for their applcation to be "taken seriously". He then probably faxes the paperwork into the office and promises the office that he will follow up with bringing in the deposit monies next time he is personnaly in the office to bide time in case anybody smells a rat while simultaneously encouraging victims by text that everything looks good. And when things got too hot, blow town. Damn. [less]