Nigerians Just Don't Know When to Quit

This is an interesting piece of phishing here. My wife and I are looking for a new place to hang out hats as our lease is up for our apt. and we aren't too pleased with our current place. We look at a variety of places, including craigslist. Here's one that is really kind of strange.

I won't reveal the posting, but basically it was a house for rent in a city near us. It looked like a great deal (too great honestly), but I thought "why not, if it is on the up and up then we win". So I sent an email to the person without giving too much info:
Hello Nannette,

My wife and I are interested in the apartment that you have advertised on Craigslist (PostingID: xxx). We would like to view the house, hopefully soon (maybe this weekend). If you have time or need information from us, please reply, I'd be happy to provide anything necessary.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Needless to say, I was hoping that revealing my email address wasn't too much. Hoping to hear from a nice old lady or something, here is the response that I got:

Hello Dear,

Thanks for the email. I own the house and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer to ( West Africa , Nigeria ) that makes us to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person and God fearing person who can take very good care of the house in my absence.we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.

So for now, I am here in West Africa and will be staying here for the next 3years in our new house and also with the keys of the house for rent, we try to look for an agent that we can give this documents and the keys before we left but could not find, and we as well do not want our house to be used any how in our absence that is why we took it along with
us.

We came over to Africa for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us that you will take very good care of the house. So get back to me if you know you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home.Hope you are okay with the price of $900 per month and the security Deposit is $500 and the first month rent will be $1,400.Get back to me with the rental application. You can go ahead and view the house but note that you will not ba able to view the inside of it because of security reason here is the address bellow:([redacted]).Please if you are ready now to occupy the house kindly provide the information below for record purpose

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
Full Name_______________________________
Home Phone ( ) ________________________
Cell Phone ( ) ___________________
Date of Birth_____________________________
Current Address________________________
City____________State______ Zip______
Reasons for Leaving____________________________Rent $________
Are you married____________________________
How many people will be living in the house___________
Do you have a pet____________________________
Do you have a car____________________________
Occupation____________________________
Move In Date____________________________
Are you moving in with your furniture_______________
A picture of occupant _______________
How soon can you make the payment_____________
How soon do you want to receive the keys and the document______

pets allowed.

Thanks and Remain Blessed.

At least they made it sound like a nice old lady... [delete].

Now I'm regretting sending the message from my actual email address. Oh well, such is life. Here's the thing that I just don't get. Is someone really living there? Are they going to see a bunch of strangers peeking in their house? Is the house unoccupied? Does it even exist? My curiosity is making me want to go house hunting.
Posted on 2:46 PM by Tim Cronin and filed under , | 104 Comments »