Hello and thanks to everyone that has posted about this scam! It made my research so easy!
I got the same email as mentioned by others in reply to my craigslist ad for a room for rent in Virginia.
... 29 year old divorced elementary school teacher... Mother is in the hospital with breast cancer... Will be shipping her car to U.S... Her uncle can send a U.S. Money order to secure the room... Well, you get it.
I was a little suspicious about her from her first reply via the craiglist generated email. She asked that I please reply using my regular email address and she gave me her yahoo email address. Not sure how that fits into the scam strategy unless maybe just keeps correspondence out of the craigslist email loop which I assume can be investigated. Anyway, I went ahead and did what she requested after considering that the email address I use for craigslist contains no personal information an could be deleted at any time if need be.
Upon receiving the next email from her (the long one with all the information others have described here) I noticed some inconsistencies and peculiarities…
-She said she would loved to have discussed this over the phone but has had her phone service disconnected because of the upcoming move – yet – she later lists a phone number at her home where you can call and talk to her or her roommates if she’s not available.
-She says she is an elementary school teacher – yet – she makes no mention of where she will be working when she gets to the U.S.
-Her mother is in the hospital with breast cancer. Generally a person is not hospitalized with breast cancer unless they are dying. And this seems like a good time to up and move to another country where you don’t even have a job? I really don’t even understand the point of the sick mother story.
-She volunteered a tidbit about not being a drinker – yet – she attached a photo of herself in which she is holding what appears to be a cocktail.
Ok, so enough of my rambling and thanks for reading my novel! Hahaha…see what I did there!?! (classic Debbie F Moyer line). Just be careful everyone! If something just doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t!
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