Flat for rent scam

[Deleted User]

I apologise if I put this in the wrong area - I'm new to this.

My story: I am currently looking for a room to rent in a houseshare or similar. The area I'm looking at, a typical price for solely a room seems to be about £250 per month.

Whilst looking at websites such as Room For Rent, I've come across a couple of adverts which stated there were flats to rent, all bills inclusive, for £250. There were photos up also, and the flats looked very nice.

For this terribly low price, I assumed the locations would be bad, but that's something I could live with, so I contacted a couple of places.

I had some emailed responses - one from a "Michelle Brehn", and from a "Mike Smith". "Michelle's" email thanked me for my interest and laid out a few details, like cost, location, other inclusions (and everything was as the ad stated), and she put a message at the bottom saying something like she wanted to know I was trustworthy as she furnished the flat herself (forgot to mention - flat comes furnished too).

Next was "Mike's" email, which claimed he worked in a church and now lived in America and wanted to rent out his flat. He strangely made a comment about how money wasn't important, but more than someone who lived in his home and took care of it. At the bottom of the email was a "Rental application" which was a series of questions.

I was responding to these emails on my phone whilst at work, hence didn't really get a chance to read them properly, and responded to them both asking for their phone numbers so I could discuss over the phone.

I almost instantly had a reply from "Mike" asking me to fill out the form first. Again, I was at work, so hurried tapped out a response to his questions. (i.e. full name, address, telephone number, age, occupation etc).

"Michelle" responded with a long email saying she'd been talking to her lawyer, and they both agreed my interest in her flat was geunine, but apparently she'd had a lot of timewasters wanting to view the flat, and as she lives in Ireland it's not easy. So she asked me to put a flat deposit in her account so she knew I was "financially able" to pay the rent and also so she could trust me. Of course I would never do such a thing and ignored the email. Alarm bells were ringing loud and clear that this was a scam.

I still was being naive regarding the email from "Mike" and didn't think anything of handing out my details, until I received a new email from a guy called "Steve Jerry". The email content was EXACTLY the same as from "Mike Smith", except the location of where he lived in America changed.

I've now been in a slight panic since this afternoon when I half-hearted filled out a "rental application" with all my details in. I know now of course it was silly, but I was in such a hurry to find a place to live that I didn't even consider scammers would camp on flat/houseshare websites for prey.

My question is, what could this guy do with my details?

He's got:
- full name
- address
- telephone number
- age
- marital status
- current rent payment

He asked a few other things, do I have pets/smoke etc, but obviously it's the details above that could potentially make me the victim of identity theft.

Can anyone help?

FraudBuster

Try here:

Rental fraud happens when would-be tenants are tricked into paying an upfront fee to rent a property.

http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/node/274

[Deleted User]

So you think the only scam is to take money?

What do you think they'll do with my information?

Svenena

I would think that information is available for most people. After all, you can get someone's name, address and phone number from a phone book. Marital status is also available through public records, as is age.

My guess is that you'd have been asked for money upfront at a later stage.

BornAtTheRightTime

When he asks you for the up-front money explain that you are waiting on a large payout from a friend in Nigeria who you have been helping and suggest he does the same.

G_M

This is step one of a fraud attempt. They have not yet got much they can use.

They will either go on to ask for bank details, or ask for a 'goodwill deposit' or 'reservation fee', or ask you to make a money transfer to a member of your family to 'show you have the necessary funds available', which they will then inetcept.

Be grateful you've spotted it's a scam before any real harm done.

Either ignore them, or string them along with promises and false info as these scum deserve to have their time wasted at the very least.

aggi

hi,
so good you havent give in with showing the money. unfortunately i gave in 3years ago and lost £1200.they usually want u to show oney throuh money grant or some simillar company. i guess they have to work there and get your account no and take your money out.

i am one of those foreigners who came on the boat as i ve been told by one of my work colleagues unaware of this things can be happening. lost hundreds of pounds on renting flats. thank god now iam buyingmy own flat and will not need to pay silly high referencing fees, bla bla bla fees and fees fees endless fees...

ughr done, sorry for a rant.

RAS

Most likely a request that you prove you had the money in the bank by sending money via Western Union to a friend and then sending a copy of the receipt to Mike, michelle or steve which allows them to withdraw the money.

[Deleted User]

Thank you for all your responses. My main concern was they would use my information to open loans and credit cards etc in my name, perhaps with an abroad bank who doesn't ask for ID. I have registered myself with my bank's identity theft protection service so feel slightly reassured!

I do feel very lucky I recognized it to be a scam, but even still, shame I hadn't recognized sooner so I hadn't given them my details!

theartfullodger

Sorry to read your story: ID theft does happen (my Credit card needed replacing this year & I've had someone (? ex-tenant??) try (twice!) to open a catalogue account in my name...

See...

http://www.cifas.org.uk/default.asp?edit_id=566-56

Also see this sad report...
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2010/11/the-fake-landlord-scam-strikes.html

Fake landlord makes £10,000

A conman has netted himself £10,000 in a week by posing as the landlord of somebody else's property.

The fraudster rented a holiday flat in central London for one-week during which he !re-advertised it on Gumtree at a bargain rate as a rental property. He had at least half a dozen people then viewed the property, each paying around £1,800 in rent and a deposit.
The fraudster has now disappeared leaving a bunch of angry prospective tenants and the actual landlord rather bemused.

What a B*****d!! Hope he gets a good kicking....

Be careful out there guys!!!

Artful

olly300

Deleted_User wrote: »

Thank you for all your responses. My main concern was they would use my information to open loans and credit cards etc in my name, perhaps with an abroad bank who doesn't ask for ID. I have registered myself with my bank's identity theft protection service so feel slightly reassured!

Your details are only useful for someone doing fraud using UK companies as every where that's part of the EEA you have to prove your identity initially to open bank accounts etc. due to the EU Directive on Money Laundering. So unless you already have a presence overseas in another EEA country your details aren't very useful to open accounts.

You are also better of doing protective registration with CIFAS that will cover everything where someone wants to take credit out in your name in the UK. (http://www.cifas.org.uk/default.asp?edit_id=808-85 if the link doesn't work google for cifas and protective registration for individuals

Obviously once they have taken out a UK credit card in your name then can then go and spend on it overseas. However CC companies are getting wise to this and block spending. For example I've had my cards blocked for spending £5 in the UK and more overseas. However some people unfortunately fall through the net.