Scam Listings A Growing Worry
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?
[...] The problem really is more serious than we can imagine.We have talked about our own experience with those scams in HERE, HERE and HERE. [...]