Hello everyone, I have been going back and forth with this individual the past couple days regarding an inspection. I got some property details which seem to line up as the condo is listed online. I gave him a quote and this was the response…
Hello ,
I am sorry for the late response I had to make sure everything is in place about a better date for the inspection so we decided on Thursday 14th,please check your schedule and let me know if the date is convenient with you. I am OK with the quote and i would have everything put in place for the inspection,first of all i will like you to know that the house is an off market sales and it is been sold by the owner and not by Realtor,I would like you to know the house will be vacant this weekend,I want you to know that the caretaker will send me the code in the contractor lock box and you can go there for the inspection and I might be present during the inspection,I will like to know what kind of credit cards you accept for payment so i can make the payment asap,I would have to seek a little favor from you and i would be happy if you can be able to grant me the favor i seek from you.Due to my present health condition,i would provide you my credit card details for you to charge for the total cost of the service and also i would like you to charge an extra sum of money which would be sent to the caretaker who would take care of getting utilities transferred over, termite contract for the house,I am sorry if i am asking for too much but i would have forwarded the balance to him myself but i am held down with health issues right now and am still at the hospital and the caretaker stated he wants the balance by bank transfer that’s why i am seeking your favor on this,i would be willing to compensate you if you can assist me on this.*
Your urgent response would be appreciated.
Warm Regards
Sounds pretty sketchy to me but thought I would get a second opinion.
Thanks in advance.
That and the wording of the letter, like it is someone whose first language is not english. That is commonly used as a filter. If you are still interested after reading the poor english that tells them you are 1. Hungry for money and 2. A little bit gullible. It filters out the number of non-gullible people they will have to reply to.
Who in their right mind will want you to charge extra (unspecified amount) to a CC and then trust you to give that amount to the un-named caretaker. Red flag for me was I want you to do me a favor! Doesn’t everybody!
Has anyone on here actually gone further with a scam like this? There would be no way I would go forward with his requests but would be interesting to hear what happened when others actually have.
Well they give you the credit card info before you even do your end of the deal why couldn’t a guy take the funds from the credit card, what’s the worst that could happen the credit card is denied?
If you have no ethical impediment, I guess you could. You know you won’t get to keep it and will be out the cash you give back. You make yourself the victim. “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man”
I got the same email, I’ve seen several in the 10 years I’ve been inspecting. I had a little fun with the prince. I’m a former Police Constable and I told him that I contacted the local police and they traced his email and the next knock on his door will be the local police, I hope they crap their pants.
No Way would I do this! This goes way beyond your scope, looks like a scam, and could open you up to all kinds of scary things. This reminds me of the ‘Nigerian Prince’ scams of the late 90’s…the cash made on this inspection is so not worth the liability you could inherit…that’s if you got paid and not scammed in the first place.
