I Have Been Scammed

[kellrl]

My friends and I planned a vacation to New York City and searched online for a place to stay. We found an apartment on rentalsexpress dot com and contacted the "owner" by email. He directed us to make the rental and refundable security deposit payments of $1100 by MoneyGram. I realize now that this was a huge mistake. He will not return any emails. The contact number he gave us is based out of Washington and is a fax machine. I attempted to "book" the same apartment with the same days we had already booked it for under a different name, and he sent the same email we received before saying that the apartment was available. My question is - can rentalsexpress dot com and the whole host of other sites he is using be held responsible for him scamming people?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

My friends and I planned a vacation to New York City and searched online for a place to stay. We found an apartment on rentalsexpress dot com and contacted the "owner" by email. He directed us to make the rental and refundable security deposit payments of $1100 by MoneyGram. I realize now that this was a huge mistake. He will not return any emails. The contact number he gave us is based out of Washington and is a fax machine. I attempted to "book" the same apartment with the same days we had already booked it for under a different name, and he sent the same email we received before saying that the apartment was available. My question is - can rentalsexpress dot com and the whole host of other sites he is using be held responsible for him scamming people?

I'm very sorry to tell you this - unless you can somehow connect the web site owner to the scammer, it appears you have lost your money. It is getting to be more common knowledge that payment by any kind of instant money transer, e.g. MoneyGram, Western Union, is the first sign of any scam. ALWAYS be suspicious of such a request. With regard to culpability, should you make craig newmark responsible every time someone posts an ad who is a scammer? All he did was create a site that allows people to post ads.

Best of luck to you and I hope that you might be able to catch him. Perhaps sending another moneygram but with prior cooperation with the police who may be undercover at the location might work.