Discussions

Just a heads up there is a scammer by the name of Elizabeth Muller trying to rent apartments off this website. If you get an email from her, delete it, it will save you a lot of time and hassle.  
 
Just a heads up for some of you who haven't rented on here before and are unaware of these tactics these jerks pull on people.

Everytime I listed an ad to rent out bedrooms in my house she emailed me for the past year with the same message every single time like copy and paste. She seemed legit at first asking about the deposit and everything. But then she’d ask for your personal information and hassle you. She claimed to have somebody’s owning her father money in Canada. She said the way she’d put down a deposit is by having said person send you a cheque that is worth $2000 so you can deposit it, deduct your deposit, then send her the rest of the money back via cheque as well.  
Needless to say, this is obviously a scam so I never follow through with her, despite her constant effort to contact me over and over.  
What would happened if you follow through that you deposit her cheque, send her the left over money. But it takes more than a week for the bank to clear that cheque, which wouldnt go through as her account didnt have any money. You’d lose the money you send her because unlike her, you do have money in your account. This is not a new scamming technique but a lot of people fall for it, especially those without knowledge of how cheque works.  
She has lots of alias, sometimes she claims to come from Switzerland or Finland as well. If you saw these copy and paste messages, just delete it and save yourself from the hassle.

Why in this digital/electronic age does it take a bank more than 30 seconds to clear a cheque. Emails take a fraction of a second to arrive. I guess the banking system needs a very rapid overhaul.

As Vegemite mentioned, cheques take forever to clear but the mere fact Elizabeth Muller uses a cheque rather than an e-transfer should have warning bells ringing like crazy! I am by no means young & "with it" but even I use e-transfers regularly so a cheque would raise my suspicions!  
 
Also, this should be reported to stop her from doing this. You can go to www.competitionbureau.gc.ca. or RCMP, or www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca or the Canadian Antifraud Call Centre at 1-888-495-8501. As you can tell from me being able to list no less than four different places to report a scam, it's big business nowadays!!

yes report to authorities but that doesn't get it to the public.  
 
this is right as it is happening on E Brandon to report here as well.  
 
unfortunately there are too many people who get scammed as they think it is legitimate request especially it they say they are government, police, credit card companies, utilities, etc.  
 
and it is not always 'older' people.  
 
it is greedy people who think they can make some easy money.  
 
Cheques can be checked quickly unless of course they are forged cheques.  
 
Money orders which is what is usually used is very difficult to check.  
 
My motto. Hang up. Delete emails and texts.  
 
you can't even count on emails from people you know as they scam the emails.  
 
if something sounds fishy it is. never give any information out.

Hi all,  
 
I just wanted to follow-up that I was able to connect with the OP and have taken action to prevent the particular sender from sending more messages.  
 
This is very much cat and mouse in the sense that scammers likely will eventually make another email account which is why its important to be diligent in never sharing personal info and always dealing local and in-person only. I always appreciate it when folks are able to spread that message since education is the number one tool in combating scammers.  
 
The single biggest thing one can do when getting a reply that fits this pattern (other than not replying) is to send me a contact submission as soon as possible since the sooner I know about it the sooner I can address and make it as difficult as possible for those that try scams that fit this type of pattern.  
 
More on safe practices when using the service can be learned at https://ebrandon.ca/classifieds_safety.aspx

There was a guy from another country who sent me a deposit for a room I wanted to get a roommate from. Then the story goes that he's coming to BU and it never worked out for him to come/.  
 
Then my bank wouldn't let me email it back to them?  
 
Am I getting scammed?

what was the reason the bank would not allow a return of the money?