Topic: How can I scam the scammer?

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

My current tenent is moving out at the end of the month, and I decided to list the room for rent up on Roommates.com.  So far I've been contacted by four people, all of them scammers.  Frankly, I'm getting tired of it.  Here's the most recent (which I think is a duplicate of an earlier one, and very similar to the first, so they may all be from the same source):

Hello ,
My name is Jennifer Cole and i am 25 years old.I am interested in your house for rent.I am a very tolerant person and down to earth.I dont interfare into other peoples business.I like to respect their laid down rules regarding their house.I don't keep any kind of pets and i also don't do drugs.I am a model . Please you could email me back or if you have a yahoo messenger you could add me to your yahoo messenger list (xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com) or my msn messenger (xxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com) I look forward to hearing back from you.ASAP.
Jennifer

Hmm... 25 year old model, overly respectful, international model in fact (see below) from England but working in Africa (exactly the same as my first scam contact)  Yeah,  RIIIIiiiiiight....

Anyway, on a whim I decided to string this SOB along for a while (after reporting the contact to Roommates.com Scam Alert like the last three) and replied to the Email with a basic "Thank you for your interest, the room will be available soon, yada-yada..."  And received this follow-up:

Hello Alfred {not my real name},
 Thanks for the mail and i appreciate your efforts towards this .I will  need more info from you regards to the house and also  i need to know the deposit that i will be paying before i arrive,i am from ENGLAND,but currently based in west africa now with my mom because she works for a missionary school and she is posted down here,i want to move over to the US,Kindly get back to me ASAP with the deposit i need to pay because i will like to pay for the deposit before my arrival and i will like to know the total amount i will be paying for a whole year but i will like to pay the deposit first of all,I do part time modelling and also i have finished with my masters programme.I do model and i have job offers already in the US,I have my masters degree in accounting.My job will be based on contracts so i do not have to go to work all the time,I will only need to go to work 3 times in a week.
 
Well, I think we will get along well because am ! a easy going person,like i said i dont do drugs or smoke but i drink only occasionally.I will be glad if you have a yahoo messenger (jennifercole02@yahoo.com) so we can chat and talk more and get to know each other better,if you have a yahoo account you can add me am always online,or you can set up a yahoo account its free,Send me ur email addy
 
.please kindly get back to me ASAP.Hope to hear from you soon.
 
Regards
Jennifer

So, should I continue and if so, how would I procede?  (Ya'know, I really feel sorry for the one legitimate international model who's trying to find a room here in the 'States....)

[Iceman]

heh...tell her the room is now empty, and she can stay there for a week (or a month) for cheap to make sure she likes it, no contract obligation. See what happens.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

heh...tell her the room is now empty, and she can stay there for a week (or a month) for cheap to make sure she likes it, no contract obligation. See what happens.

Heh... 'She' isn't coming to this country.  'She's' gonna send a deposit, but accidently make an overpayment then request a refund before the check bounces.

[Javora]

Just state in clear terms that the landlord requires a nonrefundable deposit of x amount of dollars.  Make sure that the amount is double what the renter actually wants.  Did I mention nonrefundable??!?  What's the worst that could happen, you end up with a model roommate that likes to drink and has first and lasts months rent on hand??!? 

Once whoever it is gets whiff of that I'm sure you won't here from that person again.  Good luck!

[Iceman]

heh...tell her the room is now empty, and she can stay there for a week (or a month) for cheap to make sure she likes it, no contract obligation. See what happens.

Heh... 'She' isn't coming to this country.  'She's' gonna send a deposit, but accidently make an overpayment then request a refund before the check bounces.

I don't get it, how would someone benefit from this? You're saying that they're going to request money back you haven't deposited yet?

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

This is from the web-site:

It has come to our attention that a scam is being perpetrated on this website (as well as our competitor's), most commonly directed towards those with a room available for rent. The scammers are typically foreign (many are from Nigeria). They will send an overpayment for a rent deposit in the form of a cashier's check. The scammer will then ask for a partial refund (their overpayment minus the deposit). After the money has been refunded, the victim finds that the cashier's check was counterfeit.

Victims have lost thousands of dollars as a result of this scam. Please be cautious when receiving deposits. If someone writes you a check and later asks for a refund, call your bank to make sure the funds are securely in your account before returning payment.

[Just plain old Punisher]

I hate roommates. I remember back in the day when I had roommates. I wanted to kill them all.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

I hate roommates. I remember back in the day when I had roommates. I wanted to kill them all.

Yeah, but I just SOoooo.... love rent money!   

[Just plain old Punisher]

Umm...maybe if you can get someone to rent from you who gets a government pension or check...then kill them. Don't tell the government they died. So the checks keep comming.

That way you can still get the money and not have roommates.

I hate roommates.

Don't get me wrong, I love having company over once in awhile. It's just that they leave after a few hours. Roommates make messes, eat my food, tamper with my high explosives, and put finger-print smudges all over the super-laser-energy focusing lense!

I mean, how can I vaporize the filthy liberal hippies when my focusing lense has smudges on it. It refracts my laser energy; not only vaporizing Carl Roves house by accident but running up my electric bill. Evil dictators don't seem to qualify for discounts with SDG&E.

::sigh:: I suggest you have them liquidated ASAP.