While you're passing through....

Thanks (I think) to Chris Walters at www.consumerist.com for posting a link to my blog with his entry at http://consumerist.com/5053894/beware-of-apartment-scammers.It had been a quiet blog day until his posting and then... (Or as kapow! as it's been for the site. :D) I had gone out to pick up a couple of great pizzas, had a nice dinner with roomie and then stopped by to look at the statistics

As easy as ABC...

Boy, you just have to hand it to our bizzy scammers... Even when they are all tired out they are so willing to be obliging. They'll rent to you if you have pets, if you have large families, if you answer their ad, if you can breathe, if you're a Martian ~ and they'll even make it so smoooooooth and simple for them to get their sticky fingers into your pocket. Hardly any effort at all on your part

WebsitesDotcom are not always your friend

So there I was with my morning cup of tea and I decided to wander around the Craigslist rentals while waiting for it to cool a bit and to stir my barely awake brain cells to life. Some people do crossword puzzles ~ I look for ad anomalies.I started with Australia since it has a very small ad section and because I figger 95+% of the ads there are complete fiction. (Read them long enough and just

Stolen lives

Early in the month, I received this email:Sent: September 3, 2008 8:06:58 AMDear Ms - whatsyourname..Found Your website and wanted to let You know that some one is using my name and private address in their "appartmentscam" dealings. How do I send message to all the webmaster to ban whoever is doing this ?? Regards and best wishes. Johan K. V. Svanholm, N3RF, Chm SVANHOLM RESEARCH LABORATORIES

I can't resist...

This comment was attached to my previous post and, though I thought of just answering it with another comment, I feel it deserves a bit wider response.The comment was:I forgot to add that its very reliable here in San Francisco - a few scams, but it's more trustworthy than some of our slumlord rental agencies like Citi Apartments and Skyline Realty. Seems like this "scam" angle is a lot of hype,

Come on in....

This time there actually has been a head's up that there might be a few more of you than usual popping by today ~ well, those of you who read the The Province anyway. So come on in ~ you've been expected.I'll make this relatively short, ok? I tend to be pedantic enough as it is without encouraging me to be more so. :)This blog is *not* the definitive blog on rental scams abounding on the

If I had known you were coming....

If I had known so many of you would be showing up today I would have baked some cookies and made tea to welcome you all. I'm good at it ~ cookie making that is. My roommate, his dog and my hips will testify to that!I mentioned in an earlier post that my daily 'hits' are modest at the best ~ mebbe 50-70 a day on average. Lately it's kinda boosted up to 80 with the odd surge when someone posts

Will the real whatever please stand up?

M'friend, Intrepid Renter, sent me this today and there's just something about it that is so..... shareable.This is the ad ~ slick, eh?$1300 / 3br - SINGLE FAMILY HOUSE FOR RENT (edmonton )Reply to: brownmarys9@yahoo.com Date: 2008-09-06, 2:19PM MDTWhy rent with us? When you rent from a typical landlord, you’ll get lots of attention from them – right up until you sign the lease & hand over your