What happened:****
I was searching for a house to rent online, when I came across a very reasonably priced house that was recently remodeled. The house had everything I wanted, and was in the best location with regard to my needs. The advertisement for the house went up that morning, so I figured I was ahead of the game by calling the cellphone number.
I called twice, but no one answered. I received a text message back a few minutes later asking for my email, so that the rental agent could send more information about the home. I sent over my email address via text and received information a few minutes later.
The email stated that the person renting the home was living in another city, far away from the rental home. The lady who was renting stated in the email that if I were interested that if I send a money order, that I would receive the key in the mail to check the place out. At this point, I suspected that the whole thing was a scam. But… I had to be sure.
[b]How to catch a scammer:[/b
As I said, I had to be sure. So my texting dialog went something like this
Me: When will you be available to speak with on the phone? I have a few more questions.
Lady: I am busy right now, but you’re welcome to send your questions via text.
Me: Do you allow dogs? And if so, do you charge for having pets?
Lady: Yes I allow them, but I don’t charge. (This is not likely to ever happen)
Me: Do you accept paypal?
Lady: No, I only accept western union. What is the address you want me to send the keys to?
Me: Well right now I’m on holiday in bora-bora, so I won’t be able to get the money to you via western union. Gives fake address
Lady: When will you be back?
Me: Two weeks from now
At this point I am deciding what I want to do with this scammer. I noticed that they had taken their advertisement down during our conversation. I asked why the advertisement wasn’t up anymore, and they said that they’d received enough interest to take it down. This was also a red flag. So I decided then… it came down to two options. I was either going to eat their home network alive, or scare the crap out of them.
After some thought, I decided to go with just scaring them, ruling out the potential to goto prison for illegal activity. lol. Anyways, so I setup a link to capture their information and texted them back with it. I said “Oh hey, I found the listing again for your house.” And not 30 seconds later they clicked on the link on their phone. Now I had information from a pc on their network, and their cellphone carrier information. I guess they decided to check on both systems. Well… with some digging, I found out their location, and continued the dialog:
Me: So how’s the weather in Abuja?
Lady: What’s that?
Me: You know… Nigeria.
Lady: I’m from (insert state)
Me: Oh? What city?
Me: I wonder what the NIA would think about this conversation.
Me: Or maybe the SSS
//// THE END
So I’m not usually the type to interfere with the actions of other people, but this guy needs to keep his shit off the web. Yeah, I could have turned him in, but authorities in his country don’t typically give second chances. Instead I opted for a bit of karma… he fucked with me, so I fucked with him.
What do you guys think? Did i go overboard?
