Sour Grapes & Stuff

Most awesome letter of the issue
Hey people –
I’m from the US about to go to school in Iceland, so naturally I posted an ad on your website to find housing. I was excited to find two people contact me in regards being their roommate, but after dealing with each individual, I’m afraid I’m becoming the victim of fraud.
This message was sent by a “Stephanie Pies”:
“Thanks for your prompt response. Never mind, the apartment can be reserve and secure for you till your arrival date. I am Stefanie Pies by name Originally from Germany. Apartment is very close to city center, public transportation and supermarket. However, If you really have interest in the apartment kindly let me have this request below.
-YOUR EXACT ARRIVAL DATE
-YOUR DEPARTURE DATE,
-FULL NAME,
-YOUR CURRENT ADDRESS
-YOUR CURRENT CONTACT PHONE NUMBER
-SCANNED COPY OF YOUR INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT ID,
So that i can quickly instruct our family lawyer to prepare the tenant agreement form for you to be assure that you are dealing with the right person and to see the terms and condition of the contract and if you are okay with the terms and condition then you can proceed with the one month rent and security deposit to my mother in United Kingdom via western union so that the room can be reserve for you till your arrival date because there are a lot of people that also have interest in renting the apartment ,but my mother prefer the most serious person who pay her first.
The signed agreement form will be send to you first through attached mail(with the scanned page of my international passport) for you to read and understand,after which you will proceed with the payment ,i ‘ll now send you the original copy through a registered courier to your address for you to sign and bring along with you when moving in. The apartment belongs to my late father and my mother have been managing and maintaining the apartment,but she is presently in Winchester due to her work,and i also work in a calling center too.
Best Regards,
Stefanie Pies”
And this email was sent to me by “Lisa Less”:
[REDACTED: An entire email  follows that is largely identical to the previously quoted email.] Obviously it’s the same person. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this fraud until I got two of the same emails, and now “Stephanie” has my passport number. Have other people reported fraud to you? If not, I would highly warn people or somehow catch those who are using your site as a large number of international students rely on your site to find housing. I’m sure you’re aware of that though! 🙂
The people’s emails are aron.lisa2@yahoo.de and fanieppy@yahoo.de.
Take it easy, y’all.
Dylan
DUDE, WTF.
Okay that’s really lame! We went onto our classifieds page and kicked those lying, scamming jerks right off. And if they come back, we’ll kick them off again. And if somehow those scamming-spammers are reading this and think they were being legit they can write and EXPLAIN THEMSELVES, DAMNIT.
It is kind of funny that you sent your passport number though. Okay okay it’s not! We feel bad for you and hope they don’t steal your identity. That would really suck. Go eat a crazy awesome meal on us and cheer up! Thanks for being a great classifieds watch-dog!
Love,
The Grapevine
—
HELLO!
I am Marzena Skubatz, a photographer from germany and I am working on a project about german women who came to Iceland in 1949 (with the ESJA Boat) to help out on farms.
Back then, the Iclandic federation had the idea for the project. Nearly 250 women came and a lot of them felt in love with icelandic men and decided to stay…
I would love to make a photographic work about them, but the research and sponsoring seem to become more and more difficult, and I thought I might ask you for a little bit help.
If you know anyone who has heard about that theme, or knows somebody who has contact to one of those german women, or any kind of information…no matter what…I would appreciate if you would share it with me…
And if you haven`t heard about it, or don`t know anyone who could help me out, you still might have an idea who could be interested in supporting that project
I am very thankfull for any hint, contact or information.
Thanks for your time
dear sincerely
Marzena Skubatz
Hey Marzena,
That is a super interesting project! We’re not sure we have any useful info on it but maybe some of our readers are related to these German-Icelandic couples—or are one of those women!
If anyone has info that can help you out, they should write us at grapevine@grapevine.is and we will put them in touch with you.
Best,
The Grapevine