Sharing something I encountered today. It's truly hard to guard against.
Posting a Rental Request#
Last year, I rented a parking space from an owner. After the lease expired, they told me they needed it for themselves and wouldn't renew the lease. So, I took my car out and continued to post rental requests on social media. Since parking spaces in this community are not easy to rent (++mainly because they are quite expensive++), I engaged with anyone who showed interest.
Encountering a Connection#
Today, someone suddenly contacted me on Xiaohongshu, saying he had a parking space available for rent and asked me to add his QQ number. Without thinking much, I added him, leading to the conversation below.
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++To clarify, parking spaces in this community generally cost around 300, and initially, he quoted 3500 a year, which is over 290 a month, a very reasonable price, so I didn't think much of it.++
In fact, there was nothing wrong with this beginning; it was just the overly smooth negotiation process that surprised me a bit. However, I had some doubts because I had previously asked the property management, and they said there were no parking spaces available; if one needed a space, they had to contact the owner directly. Yet this person claimed:
All the parking spaces are rented out through the property management leaders.
At first, I didn't suspect this person was a scammer, but having seen many under-the-table dealings before, I darkly thought this was the property management secretly renting out unowned spaces to outsiders, thus using this covert method to profit.
==So, was my thinking too dark after all?==
I then provided him with my phone number and license plate number.
Feeling Something Was Off#
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When he asked me to ++pay the rental fee via online banking++ and mentioned it would take until next week to process, I began to doubt whether he was really from the property management or someone from this community. Moreover, having seen many cases of bank transfer or online banking scams, my alertness shot up when he suggested ++online banking++ for the payment.
Since I had never heard of such parking rental scams before, I searched for keywords on Xiaohongshu: ++parking rental scam, parking fraud, parking space scammer++. To my surprise, I found related cases shared.
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==Thanks to the Xiaohongshu platform for letting me understand the diversity of the world.==
Trapping the Scammer#
To verify the true identity of the person claiming to have "connections," I tentatively said I wanted to rent a parking space on the third basement level ++(in reality, this community only has a second basement parking lot)++. Since he was a scammer and didn't know the actual situation of this community, regardless of whether he said it was possible to rent, he would fall into this trap. My statement already indicated that I had been to the third basement and saw fewer cars, which made the scammer even more convinced.
Haha, I'm so bad. 🤣🤣
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Sure enough, at this point, the scammer believed that this deal was already in the bag, and any request I made would be met. He smoothly said he could rent me the third basement space.
Turning the Tables#
At this point, the scammer's identity was already exposed, and I couldn't be bothered to waste more words with him. I casually found a few police work photos on the platform to scare him.
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Hahaha, he got scared off. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Post-Match Review#
Posted a rental request, encountered a connection, felt something was off, turned the tables.
I often come across scam cases and have always wondered why scams that outsiders can see through at a glance can trap the victims. It wasn't until I experienced it myself today that I understood: scammers succeed because they exploit your vulnerabilities. You may have urgent needs, such as needing money, wanting to invest, or falling in love. In a difficult situation, you grasp at any lifeline, and even if there are unreasonable clues along the way, your brain tends to ignore them or even force them to make sense.
Because at that moment, only the scammer offers you hope.
This article was updated by Mix Space to xLog. The original link is https://www.xiaohanwu.com/notes/26