In my little corner of the world, the wife and I have recently made the decision to sell our “empty nest” home and downsize.  Or maybe just take the money and run.  So, I have been putting out feelers to look for places to rent around town, reasoning that instead of buying again we could use our windfall to pay for our retirement and maybe take a nice long holiday.  After all, we’re getting long in the tooth and short on enjoyment.

Through social media and marketplace type websites, I put out the word.  About a half hour after my last keystroke, I got a text  from someone who asked me where I was wanting to rent, even though I had taken pains to say so in my ads.  So I reiterated, and he said he had a house “just around the corner” from me that I could rent for a ridiculously low figure, and that he would pay for utilities as well.  He said I sounded like a really good and honest guy and the two of us would make great tenants while he moved down to the States to be with his sick parents.  He didn’t care about the money, and that’s why the rent was so low.  He just wanted some good people to look after his house.  As a matter of fact, I could have the keys tomorrow!  All I had to do was send him a money transfer for first month’s rent and then he would FedEx me the keys!  I could not believe my good fortune.

He then sent me some luscious pictures of the inside of a seemingly empty brand new house, and now I was really salivating.  Of course, one of the tipoffs was that his text said the place was furnished.  I told him politely where to go.

Same guy texted me again today, with same message, so I decided to play dumb when he asked where I wanted to rent.  I told him a completely different town, and guess what, he had a house right around the corner from where I wanted to live.  I asked him to send me pictures, and they looked mighty familiar.

So, I archived all of these text conversations and I am talking to a constable about it.
Fun and games.