UK Property Rental Internet Scam.
Prospective tenants are being conned out of thousands of pounds in an elaborate internet scam, a BBC London investigation has found.
Fraudsters pose as landlords and advertise exclusive properties at low rents on advertising websites such as Gumtree and Craigslist. They then claim that they are out of the country and need to see proof that the prospective tenants can afford the rent before they show them the flat. They ask the potential tenant to transfer a payment to a trusted friend or relative through a money transfer agency such as Western Union or Moneygram as proof that they have the funds. The fraudster requests a photocopy of the transaction as proof but than “poses” as the friend or relative and makes off with all of the money.
Gumtree said it was working with the money transfer agency Western Union to prevent the fraud but a spokesperson for Western Union said that their service should only be used to send money to family and friends and not to pay for goods or services.
“Don’t give the receipt or details for a money transfer to any person other than the person who is going to pick it up,” she said. The fraudster would have to provide the control number as well as ID to receive the cash. However, if they managed to create fake ID they might slip the net. “Our staff are trained to recognise ID, but they are not the police,” said the spokesperson. Western Union said it could not offer refunds to the people who have been defrauded by it.
Sisters Alexandra, 19, and Zaire Sheppard, 18, from Holloway in north London, have been victims of the scam.
They saw an advert on Gumtree for a two-bedroom apartment in Belgrove Street in Camden advertised for £650 a month, plus a deposit of £700.
They e-mailed the owner, who called himself “Lin Dong”.
He claimed he had had trouble with tenants before and wanted proof the sisters could afford the rent and deposit.
Lin Dong asked Alexandra to send a payment of £1,350 through Western Union, not to him, but to a trusted friend or relative of her choice.
He then requested a scanned copy of the transfer payment receipt so that he could verify that she had the available funds.
Some time afterwards, a fraudster using fake identification, pretending to be Zaire Sheppard, walked into a Western Union office with the scanned receipt and took the money.
Alexendra said: “I was put off my guard because I was not asked to send the money directly to Lin Dong – I sent the money to my sister.”
Similar scams have been reported in various areas of London
BBC London checked the origin of the e-mails and found they were all sent from Lagos, Nigeria.
Trading Standards is worried about the increasing number of such online scams, and has warned online listing and money transfer sites to be more vigilant in checking for potential fake listings before they are published.
