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> He explained that his lease was set to renew, but for some (long, complicated, confusing) reason, he couldn’t put his name on it. My name would be on the leas
by _bxg1 8y ago
> He explained that his lease was set to renew, but for some (long, complicated, confusing) reason, he couldn’t put his name on it. My name would be on the lease.
There's the red flag right there. Never ever ever do this with someone you have less than absolute trust in. They can bail at any moment and leave you in debt, and there's nothing you can do.
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoSeriously, after I read that I was like "every bad thing that comes after this is totally predictable". This is like worse than co-signing a loan. You're basically solely signing a loan, all to take on the risk of someone you've never met. Seriously, why are there no "avoiding scams" classes in schools?
- rxhernandez 8y agoWouldn't those scammers be taking those same classes in schools and know not to scam in that particular way?
- taneq 8y agoYou'd still learn about categories of scam, so the bar for scammers would be much higher than just "take this thing which worked back in the 1800s and apply it to naive kids".
- chatmasta 8y agoWe need more "avoiding scams" lessons in general, not just in schools. Many of us on HN can smell scams from a mile away, but that's because of the hacker mindset and the natural inclination to see bugs in a system. We are the people who should be educating our friends and family about how to identify and avoid scams.
- davidcbc 8y agoAh yes, the hacker mindset which protects us from scams. Now let me tell you about my new ICO, you can get in on the ground floor
- spookthesunset 8y agoExactly. The "hacker mindset" only protects us from scams that aren't specifically marketed towards us. Like bitcoin and all other crypto currency for example.
- marssaxman 8y agoPerhaps there are different hacker mindsets. Part of what I would call my hacker mindset is a deep distrust of anyone who appears to be strongly motivated by money, and I have thus far been 100% successful in avoiding cryptocurrency scams.
- megablast 8y agoSo many red flags really. Sounds like this person was swayed by someone they thought was cool, and living in the big city.
- Traster 8y agoYeah the obvious thing in this that stood out to me was that if things go wrong the lease is in your name. This means two things. Number 1: You're shafted if he leaves. But Number 2: Technically you're leasing the apartment not him, so you can just turf him out and keep the apartment for yourself if you were motivated enough.