Dodgy Bike Business

I got this from a guy advertising a flat on gumtree in the Summer:

Hi,
Good to read again from you and for expressing your genuine interest in renting my flat. You seem to be a good personality and I am sure you'll be a great tenant.
...However as i said before viewing will not be a problem, Anytime during the week in the evening would be a good date for our meeting. but i need a proof you have the funds on you before i can commit to viewing as i have been dissapointed several times after scheduling viewings in the past few days. My job had suffered and i have also wasted my funds coming over to london before thats why im a little skeptical.
As it is not a wise decision to send your bank statements via the internet that would have been a better option. So may be you want to suggest how else you can prove to me you have the funds on you right now so we can go on to meet for viewing if that is okay by you.

Feel free to ask any questions.
Thanks and Best Regards
Tom Jones

This "Proof of funds" thing is quite common with rented accommodation. You would send an amount of money to yourself using Western Union, etc and provide the "landlord" the receipt.

This receipt holds info which can enable the scammer to transfer your money, through Western Union, etc, to his account.

There are cases where people have arrived in the UK, turning up at a flat, unknown to them that their bank account has been cleared out and there is no place for them to stay...

if i said 'trophy' could anybody give me the next word?
......if you cant give me the next word and have no idea what i am talking about then you would probably be mildly shocked and maybe amused.
................. humans. :-(

Wife.

I would say this is definitely dodgy and keep well away. I would also disagree that saying they are probably Nigerians is a racist comment as they most likely are. It is a variation on the overused 419 scams that were very popular. There are all sorts of scams like these.

www.419eater.com

If you manage to cash it at a 'cheque cashing store' they will require passport type details before giving you any money.

Thanks Goodhead for answering the serious part of my question - I knew all about the 'funds appear to clear, you send the cash, cheque bounces, you lose money' scam, but didn't know what the process was for a cheque-cashing places.

As for the rest f the posts, this is the biggest sarcasm fail I've ever seen! Does anyone actually think the OP is seriously considering this?

old time scam cant beat d iraq gold 1 !

omg that scams older than the millenium bug.