Is someone screwing with me?

[maldoror]

I'm about to sign a contract for a house. Right now I'm trying to find people to fill the house with. I work 6 days this week 9 hours a day  and it's becoming so hard to do this around work I'm considering giving up until a few days ago someone from South Dakota who apparantly speaks French as a first language lets me know she is very interested, and I thought I had found a roomate. Then today I get this:

Hi again ,
Thanks once again for the quick reply,I would have loved to call You but where i am now,i can only communicate through email but I will whenever i get reception but before that i will want to secure the place,I am very happy meeting a person like you,It 's nice reading from you again and i will never ever want to loose the room even without seeing the place ,i smell the kind of person whom you are and i like you,I will want You to know that i am okay with the cost ,if none is included again.....There many people moving over so you will have choices but i want to plead with you to rent for me
I got to believe that the person that one wants to live with matters most,i believe that you'll be a nice person,I just have my dressers,2 big luggages and my car to be shipped....
With the way we ve communicated,I am okay with you and i want you to know that i don't want to make any travel plans without securing a place down now,so i ve let my uncle understand more about you and the place,He is really comfortable and he told me that it is a nice area he had lived in the states before and he said that i should not afford to loose your place also he said that i should try and make sure that i hold down the place,so i thought of it and i will be making payment to hold down the place and the mode of payment will be the Most acceptable,easier,safer and reliable means of payment which is United State Certified money order so pls let me know if this mode of payment is ok by you.
And if YES pls provide me with the following information to get the payment to you.Your full name as it will appear on the payment,your work place address to ensure delivery in your hands through regular mails or a courier service,your phone number on the package to avoid package missing in transit.I will prefer to send to your work address because you will always be available at work from morning till evening but if home address it will be sitting in your mail and no one will be at home to receive the package.And if you don't receive package at your office address then I guess your home address will be good for the delivery right ? But to avoid any delay of you receiving at home then I guess work address will be fine what do you think ? Kindly get back to me with this requested address contact information so that we can proceed asap bye for now..
Feel free to ask me any question(s) you have okay, and i am moving in by the first week in september like i said.
Thanks...

Certain things about this trigger my paranoia and make me think that someone is having some really subtle practical joke at my expense... I don't know who the hell goes through all this trouble for something like that, but at this point if I signed the contract and then found out it WAS a joke, I would be REALLY fucked. I really need to talk to her on the phone before I go any further. What do you think?

[McGiver]

maybe she only has a cellphone and gets crap reception where she lives.


if she is for real, then she is the gullible one.

[Tesla]

It does sound strange, but it could be that she doesn't speak english very well.  Have you looked at her IP address to make sure she's where she says she is?  Is this a reply you got off craigslist?  There are a lot of scammers out there.

[Peter]

I suspect it's genuine, but I'd worry more about what it says about the person writing it.  It could just be that her grasp of English isn't great, but it's got a manic edge to it that makes me think 'scary crazy person'.

[Callaway]

It sounds more like a language problem to me, but if you are more comfortable renting to someone you meet face-to-face before you decide, that would be understandable.

[Calandale]

Sounds kinda like the scams, but I don't think that something
of this nature is.

The smell line is classic - sounds like me, but I wouldn't put
that it such a note.

It sounds more like a language problem to me, but if you are more comfortable renting to someone you meet face-to-face before you decide, that would be understandable.

Yeah. It's hard agreeing to something like this otherwise.

[maldoror]

It does sound strange, but it could be that she doesn't speak english very well.  Have you looked at her IP address to make sure she's where she says she is?  Is this a reply you got off craigslist?  There are a lot of scammers out there.

Yes, it's from caigslist. How do you do the IP thing?

[maldoror]

Yeah, I'm like 90% sure it's a scam.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

[Tesla]

It does sound strange, but it could be that she doesn't speak english very well.  Have you looked at her IP address to make sure she's where she says she is?  Is this a reply you got off craigslist?  There are a lot of scammers out there.

Yes, it's from caigslist. How do you do the IP thing?

Most email clients have a way to show "Full Headers".  Look around in the options, or search Google for how to turn it on in your client.  In that it will have the IP address of where the email originated.  Then do a Reverse DNS search on it.  If it shows up as Nigeria, then you'll know.  Although it's not guaranteed to be accurate, or true... but they likely wouldn't take the steps necessary for that.

[maldoror]

It does sound strange, but it could be that she doesn't speak english very well.  Have you looked at her IP address to make sure she's where she says she is?  Is this a reply you got off craigslist?  There are a lot of scammers out there.

Yes, it's from caigslist. How do you do the IP thing?

Most email clients have a way to show "Full Headers".  Look around in the options, or search Google for how to turn it on in your client.  In that it will have the IP address of where the email originated.  Then do a Reverse DNS search on it.  If it shows up as Nigeria, then you'll know.  Although it's not guaranteed to be accurate, or true... but they likely wouldn't take the steps necessary for that.

65.54.246.75 resolves to
"bay0-omc1-s3.bay0.hotmail.com"
Top Level Domain: "hotmail.com"

[Tesla]

That's Microsoft's email server in Washington.  Are there any other IPs in the header?

[maldoror]

Yeah, but none of them will trace.

82.128.18.65
10.6.57.45

That first one says "X-Originating IP."   

[Tesla]

Yeah, but none of them will trace.

82.128.18.65
10.6.57.45

That first one says "X-Originating IP."   

Search that IP address here:  http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/lookup-ip

[Callaway]

Yeah, but none of them will trace.

82.128.18.65
10.6.57.45

That first one says "X-Originating IP."   

82.128.18.65 originates from Ibadan, Nigeria in Africa, so it is definitely a scam because she said she was in South Dakota.

[Tesla]

Yeah, but none of them will trace.

82.128.18.65
10.6.57.45

That first one says "X-Originating IP."   

82.128.18.65 originates from Ibadan, Nigeria in Africa, so it is definitely a scam because she said she was in South Dakota.

Yep, that link I posted returns it at Kesun, Nigeria which is right down the road from Ibadan.