Soo.. I've been looking for a place in Manhattan and whenever I come across a good deal.
It's a scam, and these people are pretty good at it too!
Here is one site
http://square4realty.com
What is wrong with the site... well the following doesn't make it jive. The site says they have been in business since 1998 but the whois record only shows october 2007. A history at archive.org shows... nothing. googling link: square4realty.com only shows one hacked website with a link to it which is NOT good.
Also the email I got the from the lady who claimed she was from NY according to the headers existed in Israel.
They wanted a $49.99 web signup to get an account as well before you could apply.
Another one which seemed to be a pretty good deal ends up sending me this HUGE long message explaining how she is in london and she'll save it for me BUT I need too western union or money order money to her in London.
the email came from Africa according to the headers.
Here's the kicker part of the email (I would post the entire email but it is REALLY long):
--
Also,once i confirm the payment,i will forward you the contract so you can read and sign and thereafter,i will make arrangement with my Cousin who will take you to the apartment and show you round and once you are ready to move in,we will sort out every remaining arrangements and he will also hand over the keys to you.I am not after your money,so let your mind be at rest.God bless you as i wait to read from you soon with the western union money transfer details so i can confirm the money,send you the contract and we can finalise the remaining arrangements.Also,i have little speech problem,am a stammerer but i still get to communicate well,my contact phone number here in London is 447031955932 and if you call,my husband edward will pick the phone and speak with you.Take care.
Diana Johnson.
So anyway I am still looking, this whole hunting for an apartment thing isn't easy.
-Myron
17 comments:
I hate scammers. She prolly said she has a speech impediment so you don't think it's weird when you call up and she speaks broken English. Some people are morons and fall for that crap, tho.
Good luck on your search! Finding the right place is difficult enough, I can't imagine trying to do it from across the country.
Heck, she probably said she had a speech impediment because she doesn't exist and doesn't want you to be suspicious when her "husband" won't (can't) put her on the phone.
Have you called a real estate agent? I know they help people find rentals, but I don't know how they get paid for it. You don't have a lot of time and Manhattan is a ridiculously competitive housing market, so you might as well go right to the pros, no?
I'm in the same boat as you looking for an apartment in NYC. I google searched square4reality because of how shady it looked after they emailed me and found your site. Def not going with them.
Good luck in your search, it isn't easy huh.
I went and looked up the results on logs for google searches for square4realty and... I've gotten 14 unique people who have read this doing a google search on square4realty to see if it was a scam.
I feel pretty good about posting this as I potentially saved a bunch of people $50 each.
One of the unique hits was from Israel (the owner of the site I believe).
I signed up for roommates.com too but I didn't find anything there yet. It seemed like a decent deal I can get a 2 bedroom and a roommate which is a lot cheaper than just a 1 bedroom or a studio.
But I think at the moment baring finding some amazing roommate I'm concentrating all of my efforts on finding a studio. A lot of the people on roommates.com were also scammers!
My, this does seem like a scam. I'm living in NYC at the moment, and looking for a new apartment.
I'd find it almost impossible for this to be a scam, simply because of the level of detail they've given the site.
But, you're right. How could it be real? The housing rates are below average, the apartments are above average, and the details about the apartment are way too detailed. Apartment ads are supposed to be super vague.
I've contacted them too, so I'll be mindful of anyone asking for money wired to Nigeria.
On another note, I used a broker when I moved here last year. It's expensive (15% of annual rent) but they've got most of the apartments. So, that's a scam too, but they actually do give you an apartment.
Good luck on your search.
I contacted them with a few questions...
This was by the contact page, I mentioned a few inconsistencies on their site and asked for clarification.
No response.
Since I'm going to be in NYC ~July 7th-8th (really soon), I've got it lined up with a REAL realestate agent to look at a few places. I asked to only see no-fee places as there are quite a few of those.
Maybe I'll get lucky.
I think the whole scam is, get you to pay 49.99 to just get an account on the site.
The ownership is hidden on the domain but registered October 2007.
The person who contacted me came from: 79.183.107.244, which is a group of home ADSL accounts in Petach Tikva Israel.
On June 6th after I posted this and it got indexed by google someone came to my blog from 79.176.109.225 with the search from square4realty. The source of that address is also Petach Tikva Israel.
Also researching the email address and person for NYC on facebook and myspace and other social networking sites... I couldn't find anybody. No realestate agent or anything with the name "Susan Morrice", and nobody matching that picture.
I looked up other people and most people have more of an on-line presence instead of just coming from nowhere.
Like I said earlier I sent an email asking about some inconsistencies and clarification and I got no response; it'll be interesting if you get one.
My emails from them also came from Israel. Here's the weird thing though. I actually entered my credit card info and signed up, because when you're looking for an apt in NYC, $50 doesn't seem like much money. But, I've checked... they haven't charged my card. And it's been weeks. Maybe the people behind the scam aren't operating anymore.
hey... thanks for this. I'm currently looking for an apt in NYC and it's really really hard and sometimes frustrating and then I came across the square4realty site. a friend suggested that I sign up because $50 is not that much, but thankfully I googled and got your site and am grateful!
post about your real estate agent experience. if I get too frustrated, I may go that route. thanks again!
I got an apartment, I went with a real estate agent.. it worked out okay but I ended up paying a fee.
I ended up getting a place in the financial district. I got a place where if I knew what I was doing I could have just shown up and rented it without an agent.
If you are already in NYC try just wandering around where you might want to live and look for signs... that might work too.
If you are not in NYC or have a place to stay... it is tough.
Thanks for all your research! I also got an email from Susan Morrice that originates in Israel, and confirmed the 2007 creation date of www.square4realty.com
What a sham(e)! I guess I'll either have to get really lucky on Craigslist, but more and more I'm thinking to use the fact that I'm based in NYC to my advantage and just start knocking on supers' doors.
I thought anyone who read this might be interested.
As of today there has been 689 hits combined to this blog entry from searching for square4realty on google and http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080731121035AATtZKh
(which was a question about square4realty.com).
This means that potentially a lot of money has been diverted and not spent on this site.
yep, they're alive again. I've just (9/21) found few ads on craigslit - incredible deals, but you have to pay $39 for access to apt's details.
Thanks for sharing your story
Thank you for this post! I'm trying to flat hunt from London. What did you end up doing to locate your flat?
Dozka: I ended up going with a broker and it was very stressful. I ended up getting a place in one day. I possibly could have saved money by making my own appointments. I'm not sure, but nevertheless I got a place to live!
This is a scam. I paid them and never hear from them again. These bastards should go to jail.
Avoid them!
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