Stay away from this apartment rental

[sesamosinsal]

I just managed to find the number to the apartment in my e-mail. I called it, and I pretended to be looking for another person. The woman on the phone definitely sounds like the older lady that I dealt with all of the time last year.

Bailey, can you confirm that the last 4 digits of the home phone at the dpto are 3839? Perhaps the older woman (the Mom?) is living at the apartment while it's vacant?

 

[therealsupa]

Wow! amazing detective work everyone... i hope she is busted for all the scams, and the OP get's his deposit back!

 

[esllou]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florencia_Daud

tut tut!

 

[AkBill]

hahahah! nice work

 

[sesamosinsal]

http://florenciamarina.blogspot.com/

There's her blog...

 

[AkBill]

http://florenciamarina.blogspot.com/

There's her blog...

You should consider some kind of private investigator work

 

[pauper]

 

[Lucas]

My six-month stay in Buenos Aires ended on a bad note this past Tuesday when I was scammed out of the deposit for the apartment I had been renting for three months starting in August. The apartment owner's name is Valeria de Santos and the unit in question is located in Recoleta, at Larrea 1393 at the corner of French, apartment #PB2. I found it on Craiglist and jumped at the chance to live in a nice area for a relative bargain, though in hindsight renting through an agency or through a referral may have been the smarter way to go.

I had told Valeria that I needed to check out at noon because a cab would be waiting to take me to the airport. She arrived late with her mother and inspected the apartment to make sure it was in good order (it was). Valeria said that my deposit was waiting for me at her mother's office, which was supposedly just a few blocks away, off of Pueyrredon and Santa Fe. She asked if her mother could get in the cab with me and get dropped off by her office where she would retrieve the deposit and return it to me.

I had dealt directly with the mother before when I first occupied the apartment so I didn't find her suggestion odd. But I now realize that I made a number of mistakes. First, I returned the keys to Valeria before getting my deposit back. Secondly, I let my guard down and didn't think to accompany her mother to the "office" after we dropped her off at the corner, opting instead to wait for her in the cab with my luggage.

The mother disappeared down the street and never returned. I waited 45 minutes and called Valeria a dozen times before telling the driver that we needed to leave because I couldn’t miss my flight. I called her numerous times at the airport and e-mailed her with no response. I was finally able to reach her Wednesday, when she assured me that she would wire the funds to me via PayPal that same day. Well, it didn't come through, and I've been calling and e-mailing her since with no luck. My messages to her have gotten angrier and angrier to the point where I threatened to hop on a plane the next day and come looking for her -- which I would be crazy enough to do if I was confident I could track her down.

The strange thing is that Valeria and her mother were a pleasure to deal with during my three-month stay in the apartment, responding to my calls and e-mails and showing up to address any problems promptly. It's bizarre that they would pull something like this off at the very end.

I'll continue to call and e-mail and harass Valeria and her mother in any way I can until I get my money back, and perhaps I'll find myself in Buenos Aires sooner than I think. But for now, I'd just like to defame her on every relevant forum I can find and bring awareness to what I went through. Hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes.

Here are a bunch of recent Craigslist listings for the apartment in question:
…craigslist.org/roo/1998504442.html
…craigslist.org/sub/1998498417.html
…craigslist.org/sub/1998150201.html

Here is a website for an apparent concierge service Valeria runs in Buenos Aires:
http://www.buenosairesguest.com/

Here's a headshot of what she looks like:
http://www.buenosairesguest.com/about-us.html

First I've to say I'm very sorry for what happened to you. There are some crooks out there who do not have any shame for what they are doing at all, they will do the same with foreigns or locals if given the opportunity, very bad seeds, you can see mother and daughter same #$%#@(*& shit.

These low life people should be shot and hang in Plaza de Mayo, they are the ones who make the reputation of this country suck.

Unfortunately we have here a lot of this kind of rubbish in the government, in the service sector and almost every corner of the society, I hope she and her lousy mother are caught and the full force of the law be applied upon them, to all involved on this case please continue forward with resolve to punish once for all to these @#$#^$* scamming artists.

 

[AkBill]

yeah the old people are the worst, come to think of it nearly everyone who has ever tried to rip of me off here has been older than santa clausa. Muerte a los viejos!!!!!

 

[sesamosinsal]

And in the attached image, which came from her blog, that is the "Mom."

I'm doing a reverse check with her name to obtain the DNI of Florencia Marina Doud. If any of the names come up with any of the addresses we have thus far, I'll purchase the report.