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Another scam
Friend was looking for a new roommate to share a house. She put an ad on Craig's List. She got two immediate responses. She almost fell for the 1st one. The prospective roommate wanted know how much the deposit was. Asked no other questions. Said she was moving from Minnesota in a few weeks, but had a sick uncle to care for. (I think she said he was in Sweden and she'd have to go there first). She just wanted to send the deposit so she'd know she have a place to live. (Sight unseen, not even any posted pics). Friend kept telling her, no deposit was necessary, just had to pay 1/2 rent & utilities as her brother owned the house and he didn't need a deposit. Gal kept insisting on sending a deposit.
About this point friend gets another email from another prospective roommate. Friend finally figured out it was some kind of scam as the second person's email was identical to the first, including spelling and punctuation errors. Easiest to spot was a double semi-colon;;.
Answer on the Internet. The scammer sends a big deposit check, then claims uncle made a mistake and sent the wrong amount. Then my friend would be asked to return the extra at once as it was urgently needed. Of course the deposit check would end up being fake.
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