Finding an apartment can be a long and tiresome process, and can be even worse if you come across falsified postings like the one I will be reviewing in this post.

My girlfriend and I are looking for a new apartment, and we found an apartment on Craigslist that was at a decent price in the same area as we are now. I sent an email asking for more information (including an address), and as soon as I got a reply, I knew it was a scam. Googling it finds one other post for the same person/website.

This is the email received, both in image and text format.

Email Image

Hi and thank you for your interest,

My inbox was flooded yesterday with inquiries so I’ll do my best to answer some of the questions:

1) Cable, wireless internet, heat, water, and electricity are included in the monthly rental fee.

2) The security deposit amount depends on your credit score.

3) Move-in can begin as early as next month.

4) I haven’t gotten around to taking more pictures yet but I will be taking groups of interested parties for showings later this week.

Due to the overwhelming response I’ve included a preliminary rental application for any interested parties. I only want to converse with people who are serious about actually moving into this property. It should take about 5 mins. So if you are interested in a showing and further information, please fill out the attached application and email it to me so that I can get back to you soon.

I’ve attached the application. Please reply with the application or paste your responses in the reply email.

or copy and paste the answers onto the reply email.

This will be given on a first-come-first-serve basis. I only have 5 more units like this one unfortunately.

Don’t Delay!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Anna Brooks

Alright, so right off the bat it’s either an overly-eager sales person, or a template email. I copy/paste their website into a web browser, and it comes up with an empty server – Now we know for sure it’s a template email.

Empty Server Image

Now inside this email is a .DOC attachment, which at first glance looks like a legitimate rental application, but if you look at the second page “she” says she only accepts applicants who do this free credit check from a website she specifies.

Doc Image

3. CREDIT REPORT:
Like most companies today, we require a recent Credit Score. This is only to do a criminal background check and keep our tenants safe. We will only speak to renters with a credit report from ‘My Rental Credit Score’ because we have seen many fraudulent reports. This is a well known company for and should garner some trust.
You can get the free report here:

http://www.MyRentalCreditScore.com

When you go to the the website in the .doc, it will redirect to another site – gofreecredit.com – with a affiliate ID in the link. If you hadn’t already known this was a scam, this should have tipped you off.

This is a classic affiliate scam that I’ve seen been done for as long as I can remember since affiliate networks have been around. On any affiliate network, there is a clear set of ToS (Terms of Service), which layout how you can and can not post your affiliate links. This is a breach of contract, and as such I have written an email to the affiliate website.

Hello,

I was falsely directed to your site via a rental agreement posted on Craigslist. I assume your ToS states that an affiliate can not falsely send users to their affiliate link.

ID: 11619
SubID: 24544-
Redirect Link: myrentalcreditscore.com
Name Used: Anna Brook

Regards,
Nito

So let’s overview what I’ve gone through in this post.

1. Sent an email for more information and got a reply without information I asked for.
2. Copy/Pasted the repliers website into a web browser, and it was an empty server.
2. The replier asked for you to do a credit score. This is a big flag, since any reputable rental manager would have you come in to do this, and usually charge for it.
3. The Credit Score link given was a forwarding link.

What to do if you receive a scam email like this:

1. If you go to the website given, make sure to get the ID’s. The URI will look something like this:

http://www.gofreecredit.com/tab_picture.php?lte=all&id=11619&subid=24544-

From that URI, you’re going to want to grab the numbers after “tab_picture.php?”. It would be the same for any affiliate site that uses this type of link. Simply grab the info after the question mark, and send the website an email with al the info you can about how you got there, and the ID’s.

2. Blog about it. Blogging is THE most powerful tool any civilian has – period. Blog’s enable a normal person like you or I to become a sort of journalist. Just make sure that your posts are true and stay on topic.

2a. If you don’t have a blog, I have set up an email dedicated to responses and such. I will go through each email thoroughly and gather more information on the subject in order to give my readers more clarification on it. The email: reportit [at] phux.org

Legally, there’s not much you can do aside from emailing the company where the link sent you, unless they fraudulently got money out of you. This is why we try to get the information out, it helps others not fall into this sort of trap.

**TIP: NEVER, and I mean NEVER fill out an application and send it through email. If they won’t take it in person, it’s not real.

Until next time,
Nito