An Internet Scam and When To Listen To Your Emotions

Published by John Hoff on 15 Sep 2008 at 07:36 am

An Internet Scam, When To Listen To Your Emotions, and Africa

If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

How many times has this rung true for you? Whoever first spoke those words was a wise person.

About a week ago a close friend went on Craiglist.org, Las Vegas looking for a rental home. They quickly became excited when they ran across a home advertised for rent in an excellent part of town for a monthly rent price $300 - $400 less a month than similar homes.

They quickly replied to the post and soon after they received a reply from the supposed owner of the house in a message that looked like this:

Good hearing from you am Dr Eric Neville,the Leaders of (WHO) world health organisation appointed by the World Health Assembly on 9 November 2006..

We own the House and also want you to know that it was due to our transfer that makes me and my family to leave the property and was post on craigslist.com to give it out for rent. We are looking for a reputable person that can take very good care of it, as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.

We are a Multi-Million Organisation authorized by the UNICEF AND UNITED NATION HEALTH GROUPS. Our work is to travel around the world, we supply food, drugs, and shelter to the poor,our organisation is known worldwide due to our good work and faith. we want to know if you also have love for the sick and poor around the world.We are in conjuction with Susan Collins the Senator of United state of America.

So right now we are in West Africa. with the keys and the document of the House. We try to look for an agent that we can give the keys and documents before we left but could not see any trusted and responsible agent and the only person that we trust was dead last year on plane crash,so we have nobody that can give the keys and documents before we left and we are as well don’t want our house to be used anyhow in our absent that is why we took it along with us. You can drive by to view it from outside at 11761 Via Vera Cruz Ct Las Vegas, NV 89138.

So get back to us on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home.please let us know If you are staying for a long period of time, We are okay with one month deposit payment of ($1,250) including the security deposit,looking forward to hear from you.Our rental form has been attached to you that you will have to fill to qualify for this rent.

Looking forward to hear from you with all the application details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.

Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how the keys and documents would be ship to you via Fedex company.

Thanks Remain Bless

Dr Eric Neville
Cell
+234-80xx-xxx-xxx
Office
+234-xxx-xxxx

If you read all that you probably noticed numerous grammatical and spelling errors for someone supposedly from Las Vegas, NV USA.

However, my friend realized that for many people English is a second language and as I’m sure you’ve experienced yourself, not everyone is so great at writing coherent emails. They emailed back and forth with this supposed Dr. Eric Neville ignoring all the red flags popping up, such as not being able to walk inside the house because the keys would have to be FedEx to them and the whole strange “We’re in West Africa” thing.

Their problem was they got too emotional. They let the “possibility” and “dream” cloud their logical judgment.

The final red flag was when my friend mentioned they were a little nervous because of all the scams out there and also when this scam artist mentioned how the first month’s rent would be paid (and then the keys would be sent).

. . . ok,i can understand your feelings and i want you to believe that no negative things that would happen to you concerning this ret i know that there are alot of scam that goes around the internet and i want you to have faith and believe in God . . .

. . . right now you can not view the inside cause the keys and document to the house are all with me here, i also want to call to your notice that i will have to send the keys and the documents to the house to you via Fedex delivery to your residential address, and you will be making the payment via Money Gram Swift money transfer system . . .

This is the part where you hear a spinning record screech to a halt.

Wisely, my friend finally realized that he was too emotionally attached to this house to make a logical decision and asked both my family and me for advice.

Of course none of this looked good to us so we did two things. First we did a little research and then had my friend send some security questions to this guy (like what is the gate code, has the house ever been rented before, do you own any other properties in Las Vegas, etc.) and second, we looked up his name on the Internet.

We didn’t find anything bad on his name, however, we did find the real ad for this house from the real Eric Neville on Rentals.com for a higher monthly charge and luckily, Eric’s phone number.

My friend called the number and left a message. Meanwhile, the fake Eric emailed back answers to my friend’s security questions and you guessed it - he answered them wrong. Shortly after the real Eric Neville called back and confirmed some guy in Nigeria, West Africa has been posting on Craigslist trying to collect up front rent money using his good name.

The Lesson About Emotions

In business, emotions can make or break you.

When Emotions Are Good

When you’re passionate about your product and/or service people see it and feed off that energy. Your strong emotions and confidence in your service builds excitement and confidence in your customers.

That’s when being emotionally attached to your business and product can be good.

When Emotions Are Bad

The problem with emotions is they can severely cloud your rational judgment. If you’re too close to your product or too close to that home you want to buy, the right hemisphere of your brain (the creative and emotional side) will kick and scream to get what it wants. The constant battle between the logical left hemisphere and illogical emotional hemisphere of the brain work overtime when you find something you want really bad.

When To Use Your Emotional Side In Business

When building your business, product line, or finding investment properties in real estate, try to know when it’s a good time to listen to your emotional side. The times you might want to listen would be when you’re trying to sell your product or investment property. Because then you’re hoping that customer is listening to their emotional “buying” side and can feed off your emotional selling.

When To Use Your Logical Side In Business

The best time to rely on your brain’s logical left hemisphere is to flip the idea I just mentioned above.

Use your logical side when you’re buying or evaluating a product or service. This will help you evaluate profits and losses and base your decision on a sound judgment.

If you’re like me, though, that’s all easier said than done - especially when it comes to buying your personal residence.

Share And Enjoy

Entrepreneurial Learning Curve

9 Comments

9 Responses to “An Internet Scam, When To Listen To Your Emotions, and Africa”

Cath Lawson
on 15 Sep 2008 at 12:42 pm #
OMG John that is awful. But i can see how your friend almost got sucked in. I will never pay folk upfront anymore - an ad company who was sent to me by a trusted friend, ripped me and several others off. I paid a deposit of $1000 as did lots of other people, then the company very conveniently went bankrupt without ever producing the brochure. I am so careful now - they offered me a good deal and they were sent by a friend (who was also ripped off), so i trusted them.

Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Freelance Writers And Business Bullshit
John Hoff - eVentureBiz
on 15 Sep 2008 at 1:02 pm #

Ah that sucks! Life definitely teaches us lessons, doesn’t it.

In fact, I’ve been brainstorming an article about how my good upbringing and honesty has made me gullible in my life. I usually see the good in people and when people rip me off, well my brain doesn’t work that way so I “use” to be easily duped.

No more, though. I’ve lived many life lessons.
Barbara Swafford
on 16 Sep 2008 at 12:35 am #
Hi John,

I recently heard about this alert on craigslist. It’s sad how some get scammed, but like you said, we do need to be cautious and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

We have a friend who always says, “never get emotionally attached to a house or a vehicle”. He practiced what he preached and made tons on money on both.

But, like you said, it’s easier said than done.

Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..NBOTW - Determined To Be The Best
John Hoff
on 16 Sep 2008 at 3:50 am #

Yeah these scam artist have no shame, that’s for sure. They’ll play on your religion, faith, logic, etc.

Your friend is a smart person. When it comes to investments, they are just tools to use to create wealth.
Laura
on 24 Sep 2008 at 2:08 pm #
I’ve been conversing with a gentleman, about a house for rent in my town, via email.

A similar story. He and his family just left for a missions trip to Africa and they did not have time to get their house rented before leaving. Throughout our emails I remained guarded, but hoped that it was all going to work out. My family and I really need to find a new house, we have outgrown ours and are not quite ready to buy.

This house seemed like such a great deal and it would have been totally perfect for us.

I double checked the address with the owners name, and it match the name of person emailing me. And, there weren’t any articles relating to the man’s name (about a scam or anything). So, I kept my fingers crossed that it would all work out.

After all of the preliminary “getting to know each other” emails, he told me how to get the deposit to him… That’s when it happened.

He gave me the information that I would need, to send him the money via Western Union. Instead of the home owner’s name, he put “Eric Neville”. This threw up a major neon red flag in my brain and I started doing some research. That’s when I found this blog. I emailed him asking why I would send the money to Eric Neville. He got right back to me and said that Eric Neville is his attorney. But I could also send the money in his name. I’m not sending him anything. After reading this article I’m confident that it’s a scam.

Thank you for possibly saving me a lot of money.
John Hoff
on 24 Sep 2008 at 6:24 pm #

Hello Laura. My pleasure and I’m glad to see this article is actually helping people out there. I’ve actually received a few emails lately with people thanking me for posting this.

Luckily, my blog ranks decent in Google searches and I’ve been watching my statistics. And you know what, I’m getting quite a bit of traffic from people searching the property address and this guy’s name.

I’m glad this article is being helpful.

Take care,
John
vince
on 05 Jan 2009 at 2:50 pm #
i was wondering where you got those round logos specialy the technorati one. i would apreciate it if you could tell me that because i ordered a logo from a design studio and it is very similar!!

thank you,

vince
John Hoff
on 05 Jan 2009 at 4:30 pm #

Hi Vince. The images came with a WordPress plugin Keith Dsouza from Techie Buzz made for me. He was using it on his blog for a time and I really liked it and asked if I could get a copy, so he coded up a plugin and sent it over.

This was about a year ago or so.