[ri.wall]

I have been contacted by 4 different (?) people who have similar e-mail addresses and writing style. All have been females from abroad wanting to rent the room I had to let on the gumtree last month. They all wanted to take the room without seeing it and send me a cheque for the deposit and extra money which I had to sent back to them, mostly by western union. Please see the e-mails below.....

Quoting jessica lauren <jessica_lauren65@yahoo.com>:

Hello,
Thanks for your email,I will like you to know that am okay with the deposit and i
have made all arrangement for payment with my client at home (uk).This is how the
payment will be paid by my client who is presently in the Uk,he is owing me some money
and he will be sending you a cheque for the deposit plus my travelling ticket as soon
as you get the check you will deduct the deposit and have the balance sent to my
travelling agent through western union money transfer who will purchase my ticket to
the Uk.If this is ok by you kindly get back to me with your full name, contact address
and ur phone number for him to mail the cheque out asap.Thanks for your understanding
in anticipation and hope to read from you today.However my client will soon be
travelling for vacation and i want to collect my money from him before living so if you
are ok the cheque will be sent on TOMORROW or latest WEDNESDAY.
Thanks
Jessica.

Here's another one to who I did send my details to in the beginning:
From: Deborah Johnson [mailto:debbyjohnson0000@yahoo.com]
Sent: 04 November 2006 10:55
Good Morning Ms. xxx
Thanks once again for your mail with your details ,As i have forward your details to my agency to make payment out to you and i just got a confirmation that the payment as been made out and sent out to you , so you should receive it soon , But there is a little favour you have to do for me , My flight fee and feeding fee are included in the payment sent to you , So please as soon as you receive the draft , You will deduct your own money and send the rest that was included to me for my flight fee and some other things i need to buy , so i will just want you to hold on for the payment ..Reply back to me as soon as you received my email ..I will email you more pictures in the next email ,and you can email me the pictures of my room ..God Bless You ... Thanks Alot ..Stay Blessed ...

Warmest Regards
Deborah

my reply to this and 'her' consequent replies and my final reply:

Hello Deborah,
I haven't heard from you today and just wondering if you got the mail about the room sizes etc? My current tenant is anxious to hear if you are definitely coming or not as she needs to make arrangements.
After reading this mail again, I am not too sure you should send me this cheque. Please get your agency to pay you the money as I cannot understand why they would trust me by sending me all the money for your living expenses? Also, I would not feel comfortable transferring all this money out my account to you with all this cheque fraudulency going around. Please understand my point of view and if you are still wanting the room, let me know ASAP and I'll wait until you are here to get the room deposit and rent.
Hope to hear from you
xxx

From: Deborah Johnson [mailto:debbyjohnson0000@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tue 07/11/2006 06:23
Subject: RE: LITTLE FAVOUR (WAITING FOR YOUR REPLY)


Thanks for your mail Miss xxx , I just got your email as the payment as already been sent out to you by my agency , i dont want you to take things the wrong way as i have told my agency that we have seat our arrangement ok , i see nothing bad in sending you the funds and you deduct you rent money and forward the rest to me for me to take it to arrange for my flight and some other thing i need to get here befor coming over ...please miss xxx , tell your current tenant that am taking the room from 13 Nov as you should receive the payment this week ...just want you to hold on for the payment ok ..and please let me know as soon as you receive the payment so that i can instruct you concerning the rest money after deducting your own money , i hope you had a great week end ..thanks alot for every thing ..God bless you ..Stay Blessed ...

Warmest Regards
Deborah ...

Hi Deborah,
There are scams going around where fradulent cheques are being cleared and then when people send the excess they eventually lose their own money as well as the money from the cheque when the banks eventually figure it out. Please tell your agency that I am not happy with this arrangement and would be prepared to wait for you to come on the 13th and then you can give me the money then. If the cheque does come this week, I will just tear it up. Your agency should rather give you the money, so that you don't have to wait for me to send you the money. Besides, surely your plane ticket must be paid sooner rather than later if you are to arrive on Monday. Please Deborah, don't put me in this compromising position and if this is a genuine interest in the room then I am sure all will work out. Please can you let me know if this arrangement is ok, otherwise I cannot let the room out to you. I need to tell my current tenant as soon as possible, so please repond to me as soon as you have discussed this with your agency. If I don't hear from you by tomorrow, then I will assume that you have not come right with your agency and I hope you get suitable accomadation.
Hope you understand my position
regards
xxx

Needless to say I never heard from them again when I responded saying that it might be a scam!