Would your alarm bells be ringing?

[memes]

Had two emails from HR today from the same woman enquiring about my house - this is what she said -

I am looking for a house to rent in the Marche region
for this summer, however I am indecided on which one
to go forward with. My husband is in the region at
the
moment and would like to take a look at your property
from the outside so could you possibily give me the
address of your property?

Thank you for your time

The second almost identical email was addressed to Mr and Mrs X and obviously was supposed to go to another HR owner. Neither gave a phone no - she had put different postcodes in the phone no boxes on each email.

I've written to her to ask what dates she's after as we already have bookings for next summer but I'm very loath to give out our address. Would alarm bells ring for you? Am I getting paranoid?!

Memes

[Alan Knighting]

Memes,

I don't think you are being paranoid at all.

There are many reasons why someone might want to know your address - some innocent and some not so innocent.

In the absence of full details - name, address, land-line telephone number and e-mail address - of the enquirer I would give no more location information than is shown on my Website. I would also want to verify the information by having at least one successful telephone conversation with the enquirer, by me initiating the telephone call.

Two almost identical enquiries would really make me suspicious.

I think you should be very much on your guard.

Alan

[memes]

Thank you Alan. She also styled herself Miss on one email and then referred to her husband and Mrs on another.
Its the tiny things which make me twitch. I've also asked why she put different postcodes on each email and no phone number!
Suspect I'll never hear another word.

Memes

[vrooje]

Memes,

Nice instinct! It's those little details which should make you twitch, since they are usually the things that don't add up in fraud attempts.

This one seems particularly scary -- perhaps they are looking for off-site owners so they can squat at a place for the winter?

[alexia s.]

I would never give the address of an unoccupied property to a stranger. This one sounds spooky. I can see why she'd change the name for different requests to the same owner - but why bother for different owners?

[Alan Knighting]

Brooke,

make you twitch

You must watch a lot of Meg Ryan movies. In "French Kiss" she was describing people who had the twitch.

Me too!

Alan