Homeless

January 1, 2010 by Jessica · 4 Comments
Filed under: Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Technology

I thought the emails were spam. They were coming in by the dozens, often misspelled and lacking capitalization, a sure sign that it was that spate of Viagra or 80% Off LuxuryWatches emails that arrive each weekend. You know what I’m talking about.

But then I took a closer look at some of them and realized that they were in response to an ad for sharing an apartment, my apartment in Tel Aviv, it would seem. Except that I don’t have an apartment in Tel Aviv. Here’s a sample:

Hello Jessica,

My name is Erez Cohen, I’m 29 years old, practice accountancy at a firm in Tel-Aviv.
Looking for a place to rent and enjoy the night life of Tel-Aviv.
My hobbies are jogging and swimming.
You can find my here (by my e-mail).

Good day
Erez

And on and on. I finally emailed one of them and asked where they’d seen the ad. Homeless, they responded, the Israeli website for finding and posting rentals. Sure enough, the person who had posted this particular ad was also named Jessica, and she, mistakenly I assume, had used my email address instead of her own.

I emailed her, I emailed Homeless. No response. According to Homeless, it’s the site used by only those serious about finding or renting out their place. Clearly this Jessica is not serious, or she’d realize that she’s not receiving any emails.

And the emails keep on coming, although they are slowing down. According to my friend Hadass who lives in Tel Aviv and has been looking for a new apartment for months, the sheer number of them isn’t surprising, given the state of the Tel Aviv rental market. Well, if they’re counting on Jessica’s apartment, they will remain, homeless.

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