Rental Inquiries... is this strange? (Pittsburgh: apartment, rentals, coop)

[newpgher]

Hi all, I've posted a few threads here about finding a place to live in Pittsburgh.

I recently answered a CL ad, and kind of a received a strange reply.
There was some long intro info about how the owner (the person supposedly replying) is away in Africa on volunteer work. ( )
There was some standard rental info, and some standard questions, but some other things they wanted to know:

Marital Status:

Nationality:

Occupation:

Do you agree to pay the deposit before receiving the keys?

Is this standard? Is it legal to ask nationality? I've only rented through management companies with large complexes in the past, and I don't remember being asked the above.
There were some strange details to the response, which I would otherwise post here, but it's kind of "unique".

[PeterRabbit]

If you answer those., more specific and more personal questions may follow. In my experience, if there's something to do with Africa stay away from it.

[MeinGlanzendMotorrad]

That's an obvious scam. Don't fall for it.

[Hopes]

That deposit before sending keys is an old scam. I forget which African country is a hot spot for these scammers. They create elaborate stories to get people to send money. They're also big on identity theft. When you think about it, they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't get something out of it sometimes. That means there are a lot of fools who fall for it.

[greg42]

Yeah, has the whiff of a scam, sorry. It may be easier for locals to sniff out when they are familiar with areas and such, but just like people craft scams for CL job listings they also craft them for rentals I guess.

[newpgher]

Thanks guys. I had already decided to ignore that email, but the confirmation is good

FYI: the apartment in question is actually listed on trulia/zillow as an available rental, but with a slightly higher listed rent. There it is offered by a Coldwell Banker agent.

Guess it's a good thing I had created a new email account to reply to apartment ads. :P

[greg42]

They probably crafted the scam listing based on the one you found from the agent.

Good luck with your search.

[Tony Starks]

It's a scam. Anything with West Africa is a scam. I had one of these a while back for a place in Jersey.

Also, I was trying to sell something on craigslist and I got a bunch of these responses. They have a son who's away in school in West Africa and they are willing to pay me double the price if I send it. Then you get a phoney Paypal confirmation. I guess people fall for this stuff. Ignore or report it to somebody at craigslist.

[newpgher]

I reported the post to CL. So many scams out there today.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by newpgher

Is this standard? Is it legal to ask nationality?

I think they want to know if you're an American and aren't going to fly the coop to go to your own country without paying the rent.

If they meant "ethnicity" by the term "nationality" I don't think its legal.