Beware of the Fake adds/responses from real estate sites

[vicky02]

To all the fellow expats and those who are planning to come over please beware of the fake adds and responses to your adds while searching for an apartment.
I came across so many guys /gals who will send you very beautiful pics pf some hypothetical house and will quote a very low rent.They tell they are out of Singapore to preach the world and blah blah.And would demand you to send some money over wires so that they can send you the keys and other docs.But they all are fakes.
I didn't fell into their trap and would like to caution other people also.

[JR8]

Where were you advertising?

[vicky02]

craiglist...

[beppi]

This is a very longstanding scam on Craigslist (and occasionally other classified sites) in many countries, including Singapore. It is so well known and publicised all over the Internet that you'd have to be either naive or lived in a (WiFi-less) cave for years to fall for it!
Whoever sends money before having viewed an apartment and agreed on the terms of a tenancy agreement has only him/herself to blame - and whoever wires money to Africa (where most of these scammers are - google 419 scam!) under any circumstances is just plain stupid!

[vicky02]

I agree beppi but the way they draft the mails and pictures in such a way that it looks too tempting to ignore.Having said that I would agree that most of the people who are familiar with internet frauds will not take long to figure it out.

[Mad Scientist]

I agree beppi but the way they draft the mails and pictures in such a way that it looks too tempting to ignore.Having said that I would agree that most of the people who are familiar with internet frauds will not take long to figure it out.

This is an old trick in the bag. The rule of thumb is very simple, if it is too good to be true, it is probably not true.
Unfortunately many people is too gullible and fall prey to this scam

[beppi]

I saw such an ad some time ago (also on Craigslist) that showed pictures of a clearly non-Singaporean building and even mentioned "central heating".
A simple Google search showed that the advertiser's email address was linked to numerous 419 scams.