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Four Argentinian J-1 workers scrambling for housing after falling victim to a Craig’s List rental scam

From left: Joan Monasterio, Victoria Semensi, Agustina McLean, Rosario Burgos are in town to work this ski season. But they arrived to find themselves the victims of a Craigs List rental scam that left them homeless and scrambling for a place to live.
Randy Wyrick|randy@vaildaily.com |

Avoiding a scam

According to rentalscams.org, there are common triggers among rental scam emails. Among those are:

Does the email start out with Sir / Madam?

Are there misspellings in the email?

Are there character mistakes in the email? i.e Hello, my name is Susie.

Is there excessive capitalization?

Does the email reference God, UK, Cashiers Check, Doctor, Nigeria, Reverend, etc.

Is the email from a free email provider. i.e gmail, yahoo, aol, hotmail.

Does the email refer to another person or agent?

Does the email reference wanting to move in site unseen?

If the email has a majority of these commonalities, then the chances are very good it is a scammer. If you are unsure, it is best to not reply to the email.

VAIL — Four Argentine workers are in remarkably good humor for being the victims of a Craigslist rental scam.

Juan Monasterio, Victoria Semensi, Agustina McLean and Rosario Burgos traveled more than 30 hours from their beach resort towns and summer in Argentina to work this ski season in Vail and Beaver Creek.

“We came here to earn money. We came to work,” Semensi said.



They left Argentina on Monday night and landed in Denver Tuesday evening. They caught a ride with Colorado Mountain Express to East Vail where they thought they had nailed down a place to live.

“The people are the best thing. Everyone is very nice. We have been going through a lot, and people have been nice and kind.”Agustina McLeanCraigslist scam victim

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They were familiar with Craigslist scams and had done their due diligence, McLean said.



They knocked on the door expecting to be at their ski season home, Unit 22. A young woman opened it and grew increasingly more confused as they told her that they were supposed to live there.

It was news to her.

“This is my place. I rented it,” she told them.

That’s when they realized they might have been the victims of a Craig’s List scam.

They hung around for half an hour, but Unit 22 would not be a permanent solution.

The CME driver, whose name they could not remember but wish they could, knew a guy who knows an Argentine guy who lives here. He took a chance and drove them to their place. They knocked on the door, explained their problem and asked, “Please! Can we stay here?”

It might have helped that they were exhausted and crying.

“We’ve been planning this trip for almost a year, Monasterio said. “We left everything for this trip, family jobs, everything.”

They’re also out thousands of dollars.

You’re welcome here

The Vail police station isn’t a homeless shelter, but the four were homeless and taking shelter there.

The four talked to different people. Everyone told them the same thing. “Go to the police.”

As they were wandering around trying to figure out what to do next, they met an Argentine woman in the Vail Transportation Center. She also told them to contact the police. The advice surprised them.

“In Argentina, we cannot trust the police,” Agustina said.

While they were holed up in Vail Town Hall, Vail town staffers brought them food, gift cards for a local coffee shop and all sorts of leads on a place to lay their heads.

Through it all, they’re still happy they’re here.

“The people are the best thing. Everyone is very nice. We have been going through a lot, and people have been nice and kind,” Agustina said. “I think we met the only bad person in Vail. People here are nice and happy. I think this Ruby is the only bad person.”

“It is really strange if someone cheats you in Vail,” Agustina said.

The alleged scammer is a man named Ruby and they’ve been trying to reach him for two days. No one ever answers the phone.

The voicemail says in an irritatingly happy tone, “We’re sorry. This person is not available right now. Please leave a message.”

“I’ll bet they’re not sorry,” they said, listening to the message again in the Vail police station lobby.

Eagle County Housing Director Jill Klosterman said they saw a few scams last year. This is the first this year.

Tahoe too

This is Monasterio’s and Semensi’s second turn on the J-1 visa program. Two years ago, they worked in the Lake Tahoe area.

“It was perfect,” Semensi said.

Other friends have done J-1 visa trips in the U.S., with little or no problems.

Most of their parents back in Argentina don’t know they’re going through this. They don’t want them to worry, although all parents worry all the time anyway.

Three more Argentines who plan to work through the season will soon join the four.

“If we found a place for seven people, it would be a miracle,” Agustina said.

“We’ll find something. We have to stay positive,” Semensi said.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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