Foxtons will not be happy to see this.
Careless scammers are copying their property descriptions:
FAKE FAKE FAKE 2-bed flat in Chelsea for £150.
Foxtons original ad 2-bed flat in Chelsea for £650 per week.
So if you’re not familiar with the rental prices in London and you see a “real bargain” - Google one of the sentences in the ad to find out in a second if it’s worth contacting “the landlord”.
PS! Visit Tenantista Zone to discuss fake ads!
Seems that London based rent scamsters are extremely busy this year. News from Canada prove they’ve began to export their services.
Read all about it here – Online rental scam a nasty $1200 lesson
More about rent scams:
- Scamsters asking for proof of funds RoR
- BBC on Gumtree scams RoR
- Who’s your tenant RoR
- Scam Listsings a Growing Worry RoR
- Unbelievable RoR
- Deaf Lanldord From Vienna RoR
The Office of Fair Trading has published a list of estate agents who are currently banned from engaging in estate agency work or who have received a formal warning.
The Estate Agents Public Register can be browsed either alphabetically or by date. The list contains the names of individuals and companies with whom you better avoid making any deals in the property business.
We will have to keep an eye on that list to make sure that none of them appear on our London Letting Agents page.
Via The Rat & Mouse
An important press release from one of the tenancy deposit protection services:
Urgent statement: “mytenancydeposit.co.uk”
04 June 2009
MTD Secure Limited trading as mytenancydeposit.co.uk is NOT part of Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited (TDSL) (trading as mydeposits.co.uk).
This company does NOT operate a Government-authorised Scheme for the protection of tenants’ deposits within England and Wales. The three official Schemes are:
* Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited trading as mydeposits.co.uk
* The Dispute Service, also known as the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (www.thedisputeservice.co.uk)
* The Deposit Protection Service (www.depositprotection.com)
These are the ONLY 3 Schemes where landlords and letting agents can legally protect their tenants’ deposits.
The claim that “MTD Secure Limited is a company administering a tenancy deposit protection scheme by Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited under contract from Communities & Local Government” is NOT true.
Any letting agent and/or landlord using this company should be aware that their deposits will NOT be protected. You should immediately use one of the three Schemes above with which to comply with the law. Not protecting with one of the three Government-authorised Schemes can lead to penalties for the landlord.
If you have already deposited funds with this company, you should seek legal advice immediately.
*Kensington
We have recently received a few comments advising us to not promote letting agents who are known as dodgy.
If only we were experienced enough to be able to tell who truly deserves to be condemned!
Agent rating websites such as AllAgents.co.uk are full of reviews about agents. Buyers, sellers, renters and landlords are urged to rate and comment them to help other people make better choices. Now almost all reputable agents there have received some very poor reviews. Looks like any agent could become our worst nightmare! Even the agent we’ve had the most pleasant experience with has been referred to as dodgy.
If we don’t know the whole story, then we cannot be sure we’re not about to spread a rumour here that is untrue. The “well wisher” could easily be a competitor, could be leaving out some important details, or is just evil by nature. Just kidding with the last one.
We actually have condemned a few agents proved to be scammers. Remember Hot Lets?
There’s a comment on hold in our blog that says the agent we talk about has deceived them out of £2500… :S That is basically all they say, too.
By publishing this comment that contains such little information, we risk turning our blog into a toilette wall in the long run. Also, would we be in violation of the privacy law if we made accusations and named names without a court judgment or the accused one’s consent?
We have now E-mailed the person who left us that comment, asking if they could tell us the whole story. We’ll see where it leads us.
Do not share private information such as bank transaction numbers or copies of the documentation money transfer related to a person to person with any other party.
Here’s a piece of BBC Watchdog’s story:
Before he arrived in the UK, Emily had asked Lazaros to prove he had the funds to pay for the flat. To do this, she asked him to use Western Union to transfer the 1st month’s rent and the deposit to someone he knew – even to himself if he wanted. All Emily wanted to see was the receipt for the transfer which would show Lazaros did actually have enough money. So Lazoros transferred £660 to himself and sent Emily the receipt as she requested. When Lazaros discovered that his flat wasn’t for rent, and that Emily Brown didn’t exist, he went back to Western Union to retrieve his £660. But it had gone. Someone had already withdrawn the money.
BBC has discovered the problem of the fraudsters advertising on Gumtree, deceiving tenants out of thousands of pounds.
See the video story HERE.
The problem really is more serious than we think. We are not hearing about those cases so much because as one victim confesses – she felt stupid and naive. Not many people would admit that.
We have talked about our own experience with those scams in HERE, HERE and HERE.
(Image: BBC)
Twitter from Bathori.
What could Gumtree and other classifieds sites do about the increasing number of scam ads in their accommodation section?
Even if we say we would never fall for those scam ads – filtering still wastes a lot of our precious time. The last time we tried to find a flat through Gumtree, we ended up contacting the professional letting agent just to avoid further headache. The first two replies from flat advertisers were scams, and our patience ran out.
It’s hard to protect people with just providing warnings, hoping everyone will read them carefully. The youngsters and foreigners are usually in a hurry to find a place to live. Many have no-one to talk to, no-one to ask advice from.
It’s also very unlikely you’ll hear someone confessing falling for a scam like that. Cry in a pillow is what they’ll do. That doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist.
The scammers aren’t disappearing anywhere, so no use denying. In the 7,5 million people metropolis, the fraudsters know there’s always someone who’ll swallow the hook.
We like Gumtree too much to give up using it so we’re hoping their team is working on the solutions as we speak. Perhaps a simple IP registration notification could scare some? Or should all private landlords go through some sort of digital or physical authentication process?
Another day, another scam.
Here’s the reply the tenant received for another E-mail today:
Thanks so much for getting back to me and i really appreciate for having interest in my flat and here is the address Regent St London, W1B 5SP,(oxford circus),the flat is just 5 minutes to the nearest station in oxford circus station.Rent is £1200 per month include all bills with council tax and the security deposit is £1000.Utilities include: double glazed windows, low voltage lighting, wooden flooring throughout, luxury fitted fully furnished kitchens with integrated appliances, bathrooms with power showers, balconies,fully fenced yard, these apartments are available furnished,electricity, gas,internet access.security cable phone, ideally located with 2 bedroom king size and cable TV and fully equipped with TV, VCR, DVD and stereo. There is a fully equipped kitchen with refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, coffee maker, pots pans and crockery is available for light cooking. There is a full size washing machine and a dryer.private flat not share FEATURES::Central Heating,Double Glazed,Laminate Flooring,Available Now Furnishing: Furnished apartment situated in Regent St London, W1B 5SP,(oxford circus):its fully furnished and fenced arround, DG, GCH, bath/wc, its laminated flooring, 24 hrs Security and Porter Service available and entry phone and intenet access in the flat.You can get back to me if you are still intrested so that we can proceed asap
Thanks
In addition to the odd description, the pictures above were attached to the E-mail. Yes, in that exact size. Yahoo.com E-mail account is another sign that says there is no doubt – this is a scam.
The first ad was gone the next day and we’ll not bother to look for this one.
Makes me sick to my stomach thinking these fraudsters are walking freely on the street.
We’re browsing letting agents’ websites.
We’ve just got our hands on a classic scam E-mail from the “landlord” of the flat that sounded too good to be true. Apparently our tenant (who has been browsing through listing every day during this past month) stumbled on a £250 Sloane Square flat on Gumtree…
Here’s the first reply from the landlord:
Hello,
Thank you for your e-mail.
My name is Louisa and i am from Wien,Austria.
I had an aunt in London and after her death she left me her apartment
from London a few years ago.
Till last mounth the apartment was rent by some stutdents from Germany
and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent.
The price i want is 250 UK pounds per week and i do not work with any
agency because they have big comision.
About the advance it is the price for the first 2 mounths.
If you want to rent it and you have the money i could came to London to
meet you in a few days but you must be sure you want to rent it.
I will wait for your
e-mail.
After asking for some additional photos/information, the second E-mail arrives:
Hello,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Flat location is Sloane Court East, Sloane Square and it is fully
furnished and bills are included.
As i said i live in Wien and i must came to UK to meet you and see the
flat and i want the rent for the first 2
mounths in advance,that is 2000GBP.
If you have the money i could came in the next few days to make the
contract with you but first you must be sure
because 2 weeks ago a person from UK told me he is really interested and
he asked me to go to London to meet him
and sign the rent contract and when i arrived there no person showed up to
rent my place and i lost time and money
for nothing.
Please note that i am a deaf person and i could comunicate only via
e-mail and i can not afford to came again to
London for nothing,i do not want anybody to make again a stupid joke.
If you want i will send you more pictures of the flat to make your
decision but i want you to be sure you want to
rent it and i must be sure you have the money and you are a serious
person.
Also,i could came to meet only in the weekend,i could buy a fly ticket
for a friday night and i will be in London
to meet you on a Saturday.
I will wait for your answer,have a nice day!
***
The landlord is obviously working towards getting a payment before showing the apartment. Which doesn’t exist…
You might know this is a scam but hundreds of people are fooled every year, especially those who are new to London, don’t know the language so well, and need a place fast.
We’ll report the ad to Gumtree, who has warned users – If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Clown photographed by =alexander=
