neoSprockets .. the next generation of engineers and tech professionals ..

Celebrity Baby House Redux

In case you’re new to neoSprockets, I occasionally like to turn the tables on would-be Craiglist scammers. A few months ago, I came across “Reverend Terry” who was trying to pull the Craigslist Renters scam.

I lured him in, and tried to make it sound as if I were a location scout for the television network FOX, and wanted to rent his property for a new reality show “Celebrity Baby House“. CBH featured a group of bumbling celebrities attempting to care for “dozens” of babies in a small Californian beach home. Terry didn’t buy it, and quickly stopped talking to me.

I was always a little mad, since I never had a chance to finish the Celebrity Baby House story. Thankfully, I got another chance this past week.

Enter “Clintons Hennessey”.

My wife found a too-good-to-be-true home for rent on Craigslist, and the response we got was as shady as it was lengthy.

Hi,
I did get your response concerning the advert, I posted on Craigslist. The house is still available, but presently I’m not around.. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago in West Africa, and fortunately Iwon the bidding, so I have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because I will still have to bid again for it in the next 10 years. I came over here with my wife, we both bought the house when we got married. As soon as we settle down here I had a thought of selling the house, so I have to look for an agent, after getting one, we got a deal but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house. I reasoned with her and accepted her advice. So I contacted the agent back and requested for my keys and documents. Later we decided to have the house rent out, we would have given the same agent this job also but
the truth of the matter is that the agent would want to handle it professionally and the occupant may not be able to reason along with him later. If you notice, you will discover that the price we are offering is far below standard price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the absolute care for the property. I know there is no way I can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we won’t be able to see physical before sending you the keys and the documents to occupy the space. However, I just had a feeling that anyone who knows what it takes to put the kind of structure down should know that maintaining a building is mandatory, so if you believe you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours, then I will be more than happy to let you rent the house.

Please if you are ready now to occupy the house kindly provide the information below for record purpose

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
Full Name__________________________
________________________ Home Phone ( ) ________________________
Date of Birth_________________________________
Other Phone ( ) ___________________
Current Address_______________________________Apt#________ City__________________ State______ Zip________
Reasons for Leaving____________________________Rent $__________Phone ( ) ____________________________
Are you married____________________________
How many people will be living in the house____________________________
How many people will be living in the house____________________________
Do you have a pet____________________________
Do you have a car____________________________
Occupation____________________________
Move In Date____________________________

P.S: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO VIEW THE INTERIOR PART OF THE HOUSE BECAUSE I HAVE THE KEYS HERE WITH ME.

Best Regards
+234-802-953-1391
011-234-802-953-1391
Clintons Hennessey

Mr. Hennessey

Thank you for your prompt and cromulent reply. I am a location scout for the television network FOX here in LA and we are looking for a location to shoot what will certainly be this Fall’s next smash hit show: Celebrity Baby House.
With the exploding popularity of shows like Jon and Kate Plus 8 and the Octo Mom Show, we at FOX know what people like: lots of babies.
At Celebrity Baby House, we take a group of privileged celebs and put them up in a million-dollar home. But there’s a catch: the house is FULL OF BABIES. Dozens of em. And it’s up to our bumbling celebs to provide the necessary care for the babies without any hired-help!
We’ve already got Hillary Duff’s sister and Ernie Hudson on board, but our first step is to commit to a location.
Mr. Hennessey, we would like your house to be Celebrity Baby House.
We have scouted the location listed on your ad and are ready to cut you a check immediately for the keys.
We are at the forefront of television history here Mr. Hennessey. Please get back to us as soon as possible.

Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

You are going to send the payment to me and below is my information to send the payment, through western union money transfer nearest to you. Just go to any walmart or grocery near you with this information and send the payment.

Receiver’s Name: Clintons Hennessey
Address : 51/53 Kudirat Abiola Way
City:Ikeja
Zip code: 23401
State:Lagos
Country: Nigeria
TEST QUESTION : Who created us?
ANSWER : God

As soon as you send the payment from the Western Union Money Transfer, you would be given some informations. You would have to get back to me with following information:

1. Full Sender’s Name And Address Including Zip Code:
2. MTCN NUMBER:

As soon as i confirms the payment, I will send the necessary document and keys of the house to you through FEDEX and get back to you with the Tracking number and the arrival time of the document and the keys.

Thanks and you are welcome

Clintons Hennessey

Hello Mr. Hennessey,
Hobbes from FOX here.
The producers have approved your requested monthly rental fee of $1,500 plus the security deposit of $700. They would prefer to pay the entire year lease at once.
I know you care deeply for the maintenance and integrity of your beautiful home. And I’d venture a guess that the idea of fifty or so babies crawling around your house with little to no supervision could raise some flags. Please be assured though Mr. Hennessey that the producers of Celebrity Baby House have drawn up a clear home security agreement to compensate you for any damages that might occur during the filming of Celebrity Baby House . In fact, the producers are insisting that we add an additional $10,000 to the security deposit up front.
Payroll is waiting for your confirmation and is ready to mail you a check for $28,700 to secure the year-long lease.
The producers have already green-lit Celebrity Baby House II for spring of 2010 and eXTREME Celebrity Baby House for the summer. Your home, Mr. Hennessey, could be the core of the franchise.
We early await your reply. Please let us know if these terms meet with your approval.

Cheers,

Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

Okay, things got interesting at this point.

According to my neoSprockets’ Google Analytics, someone from Lagos, Nigeria (same city where Clintons’ emails are originating from) Googled the phrase “Celebrity Baby House” and found my previous scam post. They didn’t appear to stay on the page for long, so I can’t tell if they actually read the post or just saw the article title and baby poster.

Did Clintons catch on?

Hi there,

The only way you can get the payment to me via western union or moneygram, so I want you to go now and send $10,000 moneygram and $5000 via western union and get back to me with the confirmation number as soon as possible and also provide me with the address to send the keys asap.

Clintons Hennessey

Apparently not. Minutes later…

I want you to try and make the payment today and so you can receive the keys to the house tommorow or very early on thursday and when you get the keys you can send the balance..I am so excited about this.

Sincerely,

Clintons Hennessey

I’m excited too, Clintons.

Hello Mr. Hennessey,

Excellent! I will pass word along to the payroll department, and pending final approval your payment should be sent very shortly via your requested money gram. From there we can discuss the delivery of the keys.

You will be happy to know that the Celebrity Baby House pre-production is coming along nicely. Our numbers are looking good amongst pre-release focus groups, especially in the 25 – 35 white, low-income demographic. Paula Abdul is officially onboard, along with Tom Green, Lisa Lampanelli, Frankie Muniz, and rapper Skee-Lo.

And just between you and me Mr. Hennessey, we are in talks with people in the Madonna camp. She was reportedly “intrigued” with the show. No official word yet, but our fingers are crossed! We are focus-grouping potential hosts for the show, and have it narrowed down to either Jerry Springer, Anderson Cooper, or Bill Cosby. Any thoughts? Who would you choose, Mr. Hennessey? We’d certainly value the opinion of the owner of Celebrity Baby House.

I will keep you posted on any developments. The producers wanted me to personally thank you Mr. Hennessey. They are very pleased. I will be in touch soon regarding payroll.

–

Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

I will be waiting for the payment confirmation soon and I think Bill Cosby will be a good host.

Clintons Hennessey

Spammers say the darndest things

Hello Mr. Hennessey,

I do appreciate your quick replies.

I can understand your eagerness, Mr. Hennessey. I deal with a number of private businessmen such as yourself, and I can relate to your haste to finalize the deal.

I just got an email back from payroll and everything looks good. The producers have approved the final charge report and the payment should go out this week. If it’s any peace-of-mind, your payroll confirmation appears as item #10420420314-9842 on our books, for the amount of $15,000 as you’d requested.

Payroll does their processing bi-weekly, so it will be a few days before the money goes out. They are apparently getting a runner to go down to Western Union either Thursday or Friday, at which point I will pass forward your require confirmation information.

I’m out of the office until early tomorrow. Talk to you then.

Cheers

–
Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

OK

Clintons Hennessey

Mr. Hennessey,

I hope you don’t mind, but we had our lighting crew take some measurements on your property today. We went ahead and took down your FOR RENT sign, as I’m sure you don’t need any more emails inquiring about the house.

Scouting the backyard, the crew noticed the back patio door was unlocked, so they let themselves in. Since we have access to property Mr. Hennessey, I think you can save yourself a trip to the post office – we actually already have a contracted locksmith on crew who can produce keys to the house. No need to send us your personal set.

I checked with payroll, and it looks like we’ll definitely get that payment out to you on Thursday.

Meanwhile, in production news: Madonna has unfortunately passed on the project, citing some scheduling conflicts. She did however graciously agree to donate some of her children to the show, bringing us closer to our baby-quota. We had started a small campaign at local family planning and health clinics looking for baby donations, but the numbers weren’t as high as past child-acquisition efforts by FOX. Regardless, the show is still on schedule to begin shooting in late November. I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

P.S. Bill Cosby is on board to host!

Ok no problem.

Clintons Hennessey

Mr. Hennessey,

The producers were wondering if you would object to any minor alterations to the house interior. Currently they are wanting to tear down the breakfast nook wall in order to open up the living room a bit. Would this be okay with you? Recall that the lease agreement stipulates that any modifications will be repaired or resolved through monetary compensation by the end of the lease terms — basically FOX will fix everything when we’re done with the show. Does this sound reasonable?

They’re also wanting to install a secret network of ducts around the walls. We’re hoping to capture some “accidental” baby escape moments. We’d naturally take precautions, so that the loose babies don’t chew on and destroy your wiring under the floor boards.

Would you be okay with either of these modifications?

Thanks,

Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

Yes you can do that, I have no problem at all.

Clintons Hennessey

I love how Clintons doesn’t care at all that I am completely destroying an innocent person’s home. What a classy guy, huh?

I’ve always been curious to see how scammers would respond some simple mind games. Let’s see how they handle risk management.

Excellent.

Myself and the producers really do appreciate your support and participation. Celebrity Baby House is shaping up to be the sleeper hit of the fall! We have some promotional items (T-shirts, posters, baby rattles) that we’d love to send you.

Also, regarding your personal belongings still in the house, we basically have three options:
The producers can ship these items to you and deduct the charges from your payment [based on the size of the required shipping container, this is looking to be around $7500]. Or they can rent out a storage container on the FOX lot and deduct the cost [again, around $7500]. Or if you no longer care about the items, we can simply throw them out at no cost to you.

Looking at an inventory here, it looks like there’s quite a lot of furniture, a few beds, an entertainment center, some photo albums, and a large fire safe that sounds like it has some additional items inside — coins maybe.
We weren’t quite sure what your intentions were leaving them behind. Some of the items — the photos and safe — seem like they might be important. Just let us know what you’d like us to do.

Payroll just confirmed again that we are still on track for a late Thursday payment dispersal.

Thanks!

Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

You can have the washer and dryer, or trade it in for whatever is in the mystery box!

You can rent a storage and keep it there then I will come home on December to take care of it but i’m not moving back to the house.

Clintons Hennessey

This surprised me. Is he really going to come and pick this crap up eventually? There’s no way he can pull a long con at this point. Something weird is going on here. Just what does he think is inside this mystery safe?

Let’s ask him …

As you wish, Mr. Hennessey.
Your items will fall under FOX’s insurance policy while in our possession. I was told that before they can proceed, they need an asset value assessment for every item. FOX Legal has been able to approximate values for everything except the items in the safe. Before we can insure your belongings Mr. Hennessey, we need to know what is in the safe and what is its worth?

I’m happy to hear you will be visiting the Hollywood area in December. The producers, the crew, and I would be honored if you’d join us in celebration of the launch of Celebrity Baby House. I could possibly arrange a meet and greet with some of the show’s stars, including Bill Cosby. Would you be interested?

Thanks,
–
Hobbes O’Riley
FOX Broadcasting
OFFICE: (310) 555-1337

Once again, according to my site logs, someone from Lagos, Nigeria visited my old “Celebrity Baby House” article. Clintons then sent me this wonderful gem.

F*** you

Clintons Hennessey

I guess the idea of meeting Bill Cosby was the last straw.

I get a lot of questions from people asking why I screw with these people. For one, it’s fun. Two, it wastes their time, making their operation less profitable.  And three, it hopefully educates readers to be more cautious when dealing with others online.

Remember the golden rule: if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.

Tip: You can always look at an email’s country of origin using free tools such as IP2Location.

Related:

• Selling a Nigerian Scammer a haunted motorcycle
• Broken PS2