Finding a decent place to live in Istanbul is not easy. But it is easy to get conned. For instance, today, even though I’m in the process of negotiation for a place I hope I’ll move into soon (hi, A!), I emailed a listing offering a fully-furnished two bedroom with two-balconies in a great location for a low, low price. It looked too good to be true.

It was.

It was a scam. This is probably the seventh or eighth I’ve come across in the last month alone. I know the scams now. Most read like chain letters. Though some are more sneaky. Creepier, even. All in all they make me angry. It’s abuse of perfectly good public space, and the scams prey on people who are likely looking for a home, which is wrong. Do you hear me out there? Wrong!

So anyway, here’s what I wrote to Gary about his lovely flat in Cihangar:

to		gary.flood57@gmail.com
date		Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:58 PM
subject		your flat

Dear Gary,

Love your flat!
http://istanbul.craigslist.com.tr/apa/953526038.html
Can we arrange a time to see it? I am looking for a place to rent for the next six months starting in Jan. Also, could you let me know the exact address?
Thanks a lot! Feel free to give me a call at …
Cheers,
–
Monika Jones

And then this delightful answer:

Thanks for your email response. The apartment  is still available for
rent for 450Euro.(914.954 TRY) I inherited the apartment  from my late Husband.I
lived in the apartment  Only Because am Single,am a Teacher in
(Istanbul) so they transfer me to West Africa Teach a University.i Teach
French,Spanish,i will there for about 1 or 2 Years .i just need
someone with an open heart,love and clean to occupy the apartment  and
put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the apartment
for, since i am not residing there for now.I left behind some
Facilities and electronics which you have to pay for the subscription,
and a DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully
equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, a refrigerator-freezer,
four-hob and oven, microwave,dishwasher and washing machine, My
Computer Connected with Internet Access Also the keys to the condo are
right here with me, and the lease document. Which i can send to you
after all necessary agreement has be accepted. Also i will like you to
know that the rent charges is not really the issue , but your absolute
maintenance of my apartment , because that is the only valuable
property my late Husband left behind, and it also took him so much
time and money to put all those facilities in place.
…
Application Fee:
Deposit: 450Euro.(914.954 TRY)
Rent: 450Euro.(914.954 TRY) per month
Policies Pets:
Call for details Smoking:
Exterior Outdoor: Parking:
-1 Dedicated Parking Spaces Community:
Handicap Accessible
Access Gate.
So if you are interested in the apartment you get back to me by
filling the Rent Application Form below okay.

(A long list of irrelevant questions follows, such as ‘are you married’ and ‘do you have pets’ and a picture request. What is this, a social networking fill-in-the-blank??)

Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can
have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and
contacting you.Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how
to get the document and the key to you, please we are giving you all
this base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words,
you know that, we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods
hand, so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless
you more as you do this.
…
Best Regards.
Yours Faithfully
Mrs Made Godwin
+234-808-898-9656 & #1102348088989656…

Blah blah blah blah. So what happened to Gary? The name alone assured me that it was a scam.

Not to mention what is a “four hob” and the why don’t they know the currency of Turkey? YTL not TRY. It reminded me of the emails I’ve gotten from Rev. Jesus Vincent last week. And George Henry the week before. Ugg. All I had to do was copy and paste a line of the email into Google to see that I’m not alone in this:

I think I’m getting SCAMMED by people in Nigeria for my RENT MONEY! Read and tell me and don’t fall for this!

Don’t fall for it. Originally I wanted this posting to be a handy how-to on how to avoid being scammed on the internet, since I’ve been young and made stupid decisions before (not mututally exclusive catagories) I thought what a nice way to give back to the community.

But in all honesty, I’m a better door than a window. So I’ll give a few word of warnings then tip my hat back to the hardworking experts in the field. Here’s my findings:

- Always as for photos and look at them closely to see if they were photoshopped and if landmarks out the window are recognizable

-Ask for a local phone number and arrange to meet the person. After hearing a scary story of a girl who went alone to meet a landlord at 9pm and ended up abducted, it’s worth going during the day and not going alone

-Don’t give personal info out about yourself that isn’t already available on the internet (for instance, my webpage shows up on my signature, so I let the people check up on me for themselves)

-Do your own research: google names, email addresses, and other info to double check identites and listings

-Ask for references if it is an agency

-Use your common sense – DON’T WIRE MONEY

-If you are arranging accomodation from abroad, this can be tricker as you might be asked to send a deposit to reserve the place. The one time I did this without the help of a university or other institution I didn’t actually pay until I arrived, and after hearing stories of other people who did this, I am lucky that the flat was saved for me. I don’t actually have any first person experience on this one so I’d refer to experts, but all in all, look out for the red flags of scammers, who are “dangerous” according to one site, and not just unprofessional

And now, here’s a short list of places to find out more on scamming:

Consumerist.com has a nice article on apartment scamming here. Meanwhile, Here be Dragons regularly posts funny and amusing* posts about Craigslist apartment scams. *Funny and amusing if you aren’t being scammed. The Quirked Eyebrow also has a list of email list of scammers to double-check with.

For those who want to play dirty, I found ways to bait scammers on 419eater.com. Fun fun ways to trick confidence of the confidence tricksters. Meanwhile, Craigscrimelist is a great way to entertain yourself with weird stories and strange things, period. For instance, I was creeped out by the guy who killed his wife then tried to have sex with her.

The good news is, in my little fold of the internet universe, I exerted control over the scammers by flagging them on Craigslist and they’ve dissapeared.  Thanks, Craig.

The bad news is I wanted to post the photos here so that everyone could see why I was first attracted to the great listing. But alas that isn’t possible anymore.

Instead, here’s a photo of what is a real listing in my price range.

The front of the building looks really great. I only wonder what it smells like. Yeah, I hoping things work out with my hopeful place. We shall see …