Private landlord.. Dodgy?

Radsteral

i rent from private landlord- when i got in, he asked me for pasport, proof of income etc which i produced
the day i paid the money, before i handed them i asked him for friving licence , registred to the address he told he lives, and proof that the house was his.
he was sort of lost for words, and let me get in the flat without any penny till he brought what i wanted .
Its been a good landlord though
Play it safe.. i woud be !!!!!! of even if somebody got of me 10 quid let alone 1400

Trusted_Friend

rosepink1984 wrote: »

This happened to me before as Triker has posted - Once you have sent the money to a friend, they can intercept the payment to your friend as the receipt has all the details they need. You wouldn't see the money again.
!

Out of interest, how on earth does the scam work.
If you send money to a friend's bank account, how on earth can you be liable if the money disappears between you and your friend ???
Surely the bank, and not you, would be liable if the bank let the fraudsters wrongly divert the money ???
Especially since the Payment Services Regulations 2009 came in on 1 November 2009 in the UK, which state that unless you are grossly negligent (and you were not) then you should not lose out and the bank has to bear any loss for them being silly enough to allow the money to be diverted ???

Interested to know.

g_attrill

Trusted_Friend wrote: »

Out of interest, how on earth does the scam work.
If you send money to a friend's bank account, how on earth can you be liable if the money disappears between you and your friend ???
Surely the bank, and not you, would be liable if the bank let the fraudsters wrongly divert the money ???

It doesn't go to a bank account, it goes to Western Union which is a money transfer service. You pay the money in at an agent (usually a travel agent or bank) in the UK, then it can be picked up at an agent anywhere in the world. The scammer probably creates some fake ID, or possibly knows a way to get an agent to pay out just using a copy of the receipt, possibly in Romania the agents are a bit slack/shady?

HunnyBunny

Pork89 wrote: »

I found an ad on Gumtree earlier today for an AMAZING flat. Cheaper than what I pay at the moment, much bigger, much nicer and it overlooks a river!

I sent an email to the person who placed the ad asking if it was okay to view the property and got this back:





Now, that's all fine. But I've never dealt with a completely private landlord before. The flat I'm in at the moment was a right pain to get (through an estate agent); had to provide proof of identity, get guarantor forms, sign tenancy agreements... All that malarke.

The flat truly is amazing and I'd love to move in, but I'm hoping she's not going to be ask for the money to be electronically transferred (without even mentioning a tenancy agreement) and then promising the send the keys.

Has anyone dealt with a situation like this before? Do I need to be wary? Should I still be signing tenancy agreements and whatnot?

As long as I'm completely secure and have no risk of losing my money and not gaining the flat then I'd be happy to rent with her. I'm not overly concerned about viewing the property as I walk past the block of flats every day and it's quite apparent how big and luxurious they are!

Many thanks people of MSE

I love how he felt the need to mention he works in a Hospital, as though he's trying to gain your trust. Glad you found out it was scam before it was too late, shame though that it was.

mrstilton

The Western Union receipt isn't needed to collect the money. In fact, the only person issued with a receipt is the person who pays the money in to a Western Union agent. The reason the scammer asks you to scan the receipt is that it has all the relevant information on there needed to collect the money.

It lists the name, dob, and address of the sender. How much cash they have deposited. Who the cash is meant to go to, their name and dob. And it also lists a unique special pin number (of about 10 digits) which the receiver needs to collect the cash from their local Western Union.

Usually, agents do require that people collecting money from Western Union bring with them ID; passport or driving licence, but if the agent is lax, and the person has all the info including the pin number, then they'll possibly release the funds. They may even be in on the scam themselves.

In some countries they are very good at creating false ID's, so that's a possibilty too. They just stick their own photo on a falsely made up drivers licence or passport. Easily done.

This scam is rife in Nigeria too. Usually done by teenage youths from internet cafes.

I'm amazed that anyone can fall for these scams as besides the whole thing being more fishy than an anchovies fanny, the scammers are usually thick as two planks and come out with the most laughable mistakes and rubbish!