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by Anne Garber World Wide Web (May 28, 2008) -- When we're not defending the rights of hapless consumers at home, my husband and I work as food-and-travel journalists, and our writing commitments mean a visit to Paris every Fall. Alright, alright, "tough work, but someone's got to do it." Alas and woe, last visit, we learned that our favourite hidden gem (and bargain) residence hotel was being converted to social housing and would no longer be our "adresse à Paris." So we set about trying to find autumn accommodation for ourselves in the City of Light.
Craigslist is a great resource for selling things, finding apartments, locating services and meeting people. Most of the time transactions go smoothly and both seller and buyer are satisfied with the Craigslist experience. Danger awaits the unwary buyer or seller on Craigslist. Most these scams follow the same pattern you see on eBay and other online auction sites. Try posting that you have a piece of jewellery or some other easily-mailed valuable item for sale and the first response you get will probably be someone trying scam or trick you out of your money. Unfortunately for our national pride, Calgary, Alberta is a real hotbed of Craigslist apartment rip-offs.
But the honest consumer is always at a disadvantage, because he or she comes into the marketplace with an open mind. Why couldn't I have won that lottery? Why couldn't this deal simply be the find of the century? We are not all motivated by greed, but most on-the-level individuals can't help but harbour at least a few small fantasies about "What if I just got lucky, for once?" But those transactions ARE fantasies, and the Deal of the Century doesn't come around every day. Well, perhaps once in a hundred years! Franglo's response e-mail when one posts an ad even includes warnings about fraud and what to do about it. Too bad that the one, great, free, democratic resource -- the World Wide Web -- has to be exploited by those few nasty creeps who can't turn their energies toward making an honest living, but somehow get off instead by trying to cheat, corrupt, steal and generally rip-off the rest of the population. Maybe the truth is they lack the brain-power to get ahead by any legitimate means, and they really ARE stupid enough that they think they won't eventually get caught. So the story is that John and I put this ad up on Franglo:
Posted by AnneGarber on 20-May-2008 :: Views: 137 :: Posting ID: 32515
Responsible, mature, married, Vancouver-based, professional food-and-travel journalists require apartment-minding, sub-let or INEXPENSIVE rental in Paris for months of October and November, 2008.
We are entirely flexible about features included except high-speed internet access on premises is a decided plus!
Prefer RDC or high-floor with elevator and in 11th arr., but will also consider alternate ideas, amenities and locations (but in Paris-proper a must!).
Non-smoking, no-pets-with-hair, please (birds, fish, reptiles OK) -- but we can (and will) tend a garden or house-plants with great care and attention to owner's requirements.
All reasonable offers, proposals considered. Reference available on request. Please feel free to check out the websites, magazines and newspapers for which we write by visiting http://www.evalu8.org or http://www.wikipedia.com and reading profiles for Anne Garber and John T.D. Keyes.
We had two immediate responses, but the first one -- also clearly a scam -- dropped out immediately when he realized he was dealing with bono fide journalists who could possibly do him some damage in his chosen field of pillaging and plundering!
Here is her picture, such as it is, by the way. Just so you know who we're dealing with, and who her friends are. If you have the patience, here is our correspondence in its entirety (my responses are in blue):
On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 7:08 AM, Franglo
The message below is a reply to your Franglo posting:
From: Anne Garber
We have lots of time to decide, but yes, we are still looking for Paris accommodation October and November, 2008. Please send details of the room (and its amenities) you have available, OK?
Many thanks,
Anne
Am Chloe Hourde,21 years old.my parent lives in Paris ,i stays in London before but since the death of my Dad i have to relocate down to Paris in other to be take care of my Mum and after she left for London,i have been taking care of the flat.
I thanks so much for the mail and interest in my flat and ,i have been pretty busy in UK for my internship, i but i will be back in couple of weeks,cos this is my last session at the school.
However, the flat is located at ( 13, Rue de Marignan - 75008 Paris)the flat will be available from June 2008,but i can reserve the room for you till September when you arrive. this room for the flat has two bedrooms available and each room has a very bid
bed that can sleep two people with a television connected to cable,a small refrigerator apart from a big freezer in the kitchen a private bathroom with toilet ,
drawer.
However the apartment itself has the following for your benefit:a big living room fully furnished with a television
connected to cable,internet facility available ,in all the two rooms if you have a laptop you can bring along and connect as well, the transport facilities are quite ok the area as there is a tube station close to the flat
Am sending to you some pictures hope you will love it?and i will send to you a rental agreement form to see what next to do,you may have to pay for a security deposit of and for one month rent in advance to show some seriousness that you really want this flat, and if you need a room you are welcome, so that i can reserve either the flat or the room for you for the period you want cos a lot of people have wasted my time on
this issue and i really want to deal with people who are serious and genuinely interested in the room, i hope you understand me?thanks once again for the interest in my room while waiting to read from you.
Regards,
Chloe
Dear Chloe:
Thank you for your friendly and detailed reply. However, I think a 2-bedroom flat is larger than what we require, unless we can find friends who wish to share with us.
If it is affordable, we might also like to see your photos before deciding. Is that alright with you?
Warm wishes from Canada,
Anne & John
Hello ,
Thanks for the reply and the interest in my room, am attaching to this mail some of the flat picture i hope you will like it? as i stated in my previous mail am not in Paris for now, but if you want to proceed then we can .
The monthly rent of 600€ include all the bills and charges for a month , and this is for a room , with the sum of 650€ for the security refundable deposit. and the rental fee for the period of two months it 1200€ with the sum of 650€ for the security deposit
The flat is located in 13, Rue de Marignan - 75008 Paris.
The nearest metro station is Alma-Marceau Metro station, and its About 5mins walk from the flat.
..
I hope you understand the way i feel about this issues, people have deceived me into giving them rooms free and i will not fall for it again.If you are serious in renting the room, you will have to pay in advance to my mother in London Via Money Transfer agents,Before making the payment their some procedure we have to undergo If truly you are ready to rent the room,I will have to tell our family lawyer to prepare a Tenant Agreement Form and a receipt for the deposit which i will fill and sign and our family lawyer will witness ,I will scan it and send to you for to sign and send back to me.I will need the following information.
1) The photocopy of your ID Card
2) your arriver date and departure date
3) your home address.The purpose of this address ,is for me to send the tenant agreement form back to you,so that you can come with your own copy of it.
Best regards,
Chloe
We understand entirely your need for a security deposit (we would do the same in your position!). However, I must discuss this commitment further with my husband. And also, I forgot to ask if the flat is on a high floor, and if there is an elevator...?
If it has two bedrooms, we are not supposed to share the flat with other people, are we? I'm just a little unclear about the exact characteristics of the flat you offer, as initially, you mentioned that it has two bedrooms.
One last thing: In Canada one does not have an "ID card," so will our official Press Cards do for identification purposes? (We cannot send photocopies of our passports, as it is against the laws of Canada to do so!)
Thank you for the photos -- it looks lovely.
Cheers, again,
Anne & John
Hi Anne,
Thanks for the reply and for your kind of understanding towards me , and i hope you will eventually becomes my next tenant.
The flat is on the second floor, and you have access to the elevator, and the flat has three rooms, but am renting out two rooms, and if you and your husband are ready to take the two room it okay with me , and that make your rental fee for the two rooms to be 2400€ for the period of two months, with the deposit of 1000€. i hope this is okay with you and your husband? and if not i can still rent a room to you and your husband.
Concerning the deposit and payment i will like you to discuss this with your husband , and get back to me as soon as conclude over the payment issue. more also i only need any form of your identity for me to be able to recognize you when ever i see you, i dont want you to send me a copy of your Passport since it against your country law. kindly get back to me asap if you are still interested in taking either a room or the two rooms. i hope to read from you soon.
Regards,
Chloe
Here is my note to Franglo (among others -- I also contacted some fraud pages and international authorities, but had no reply from Yahoo mail):
My husband and I are advertising on Franglo for accommodation in October and November of this year. We have been approached by a young woman by the name of Chloe Hourde, who says she has a flat in Paris available. She wants money sent in advance to London (!) and there were a number of inconsistencies in her story and the "premises" she describes. She even sent us pictures. Acting on our suspicions, we did a little investigating and the address she gives us is for a "boarding house-type" hotel, that is clearly not hers -- nor does it match the photos she has sent (which she probably cut-and-pasted from Franglo, BTW). Please feel free to reproduce my comments to warn others about this little rip-off-artiste. And if you will send me an e-mail address for fraud@franglo, I will gladly forward a copy of our correspondence, if that makes it easier to stop her from victimizing others. Luckily, we have sent her no money, so she is the one being taken for a ride, so far. Cheers, Anne
Here is the response I got from Franglo -- just to show they DO follow up!
Anne,
Thank you for sending this email thread. We take community moderation
seriously and manually review every case that has been reported by a
user.
We cannot reveal specific action(s) taken against Franglo members/users, but we can assure you that every effort is made to protect you and other Franglo members from inappropriate activity. We have blocked hundreds of IP addresses and IP ranges from accessing the Franglo service, and work hard to keep our community informed about
how to identify fraudulent activity.
Thank you for participating in the Franglo community!
Thank you for getting back to me. Even though you cannot specifically tell me if I am protected from this scam artist, at least I know that Franglo is doing its best to stand up for honest consumers! It's also good to know you can block IP-range access to the site.
While we're on the subject, here are a number of names of other people who have tried to scam tourists about apartment rentals in Paris: Edouardo Martel, Sandra Roland, Kelly Roland, Monica Henrick, Nedved Henrick, Elodia Lisha, Darlington Stone, Laurie Paucot, Anna Liffey, Valeria Burgio, Diette Clemence, Chelsea Bluessports, Mr. Smith Rolland, Karine Leopold, Sarah Doyle, Laurent Bizet -- AVOID!
The key thing is to search the person's name on Google. Because they want to be able to cash your bank draft, they often use their own name or an alias for which they have fake ID. If you catch one, remember to report them via e-mail to Franglo abuse or online to Craig's List scams.
Laurie Paucot
And this one -- note how many names appear over and over on scam lists!
Sarah Hansen
Hello,
Sarah
The pic of the apartment is attached on the file of these message. My Father in-law is the owner of the apartment is on a tour to the western coast of africa and will only come back to visit the apartment occasionally .The rent will cost you 600 euros/month,a part payment of 500 euro will be paid to my Attorney so that the apartment will be secured for you and all relevant document of the apartment will be prepare so that when come you just move into the apartment without any problem. The balance will be paid at your convinent time,you may be the only one that will stay but if you do not wish to stay alone the other room will be rented out to the next applicant .The apartment has all the necessary amenities you will need (internet service, washing machine and so on ).The Attorney will need 100% of the part payment so that the apartment will be secured as soon as possible for you. You are the first to apply for the apartment and my Father in-lawe has just instructed me to give the apartment out to you and i will like to tell you that you have to act fast in paying the part payment so that the apartment can be secure for you.I may wait for you at the airport if you will be coming through that way or we meet in convinent place so that we come to view the apartment. The apartment is located in Seine at Boulevard de Grenelle in the 7th arrondissement just a few steps away from the Eiffel Tower in the centre of town and the part payment will made to the Attorney as soon as possible, so that all the necessary document will be process as soon as possible .I will need your full name ,contact address and phone that we will use in the preparation of the document ,i await you response asap.thanks
Sarah
EUR400 SPACIOUS & CENTRAL APARTMENT IN PARIS - NEAR EIFFEL TOWER (CITY CENTER)
Reply to: hous-691487179@craigslist.org
WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!
I have been the victim of fraud from an ad posted on Craigslist Paris. I have lost $2,500 and caution everyone to take care!!
It was a very elaborate scam - the passport that was emailed to me was real but stolen, the official documents were photoshopped, the signatures forged and the contract was extremely thorough (my solicitor even approved it).
I have been going through ads and flagging the scams - there are a LOT on here, please be careful!! Anyone that asks for Western Union or similar wire transfer is a scammer - DO NOT AGREE TO IT!!
They email from the following addresses:
As a previous post helpfully suggested, check the IP address. In your email program somewhere it will say "Show Full Header" or something similar. This will provide all details from the sender up the top of the email when you open it - find the IP address (it will look like this - 90.208.149.203 - and sits at the bottom of the header next to “Received by”) and do a search on http://whois.domaintools.com/. It will tell you which country the email is coming from.
BOTTOM LINE - Treat everyone as guilty until proven innocent, ask lots of questions and realise that these people have no shame - they will stop at nothing until they get your money!!
BE SAFE!!
And so ends the tale of the rip-offs that nearly reeled me in. Pass the word along. Together, we can help keep the internet a safer place to visit.
Resources & Helpfuls Links
Read other Rip-offs, Scams, Hoaxes, Fraud & Consumer Alerts on evalu8.org...
To find out how to post a Press Release on evalu8.org, click here.
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Before you decide this is just another finger-pointing lecture, let me point out that this one even had ME going for awhile! And -- by the way -- if you should happen to recognize YOUR apartment in any of these stolen pictures, you'd best consider that one of your friends (or someone who at least had access to your place) is a crook and a thief!
One of the viable options we explored was the wonderful 
To help avoid these scams, Craigslist suggests that you keep all transactions local and don't do business with people who live outside your local area. You are also urged to use caution and common sense as you should with all online financial transactions. Offering more than what you asked for or bonuses is another odd piece of behaviour. Who would make such an offer? And why? Poor grammar and misspelled words are other clues, as are vagueness about what is being offered, or changing features in the item itself.
Journalists seek 2-month accommodation in Paris
I'm glad to see Chlöe went to so much trouble to write, as I like to believe that occupying her with laboured correspondence with me has kept her away from other potential victims!
Hello, are you still in need of a room inParisi?, if your answer is yes do no hesitate to contact me on this email addy chloe_ho@yahoo.com i will be waiting for your respond so that i can forward to you more details about the rooms very soon.
Hello,
But can you tell me how much you would charge for a 2-month rental, all the same?
I have seen people who told me that they will pay us upon seeing the flat, promising me that money is not the problem or that their company is paying or they are financially buoyant to pay the rent and then i took permission to be absent from tmy school, when we meet and after seeing my
apartment,they definitely fall in love with it but they dont have money to pay, i dont know how people are so unserious and take pleasure in wasting other peoples time,they will start pleading with me and telling me all their problems as regards finances and how they cannot pay until a certain period of time which of course will make me compassionate and i would be forced to help a fellow human being of accommodation at my own detriment.
Dear Chloe:
Hello, 
A further e-mail from "Sarah" even includes pictures of a gorgeous apartment that regrettably does not belong to her -- or her "Father-in-law." Wow. What Chutzpah!
