I think I was nearly scammed by a fake agent....

RAS

Mikey

Also try www.pipl.com. That pulls up electoral roll data and other stuff like facebook, CV and directorship information. I use it to trace people.

Having told the agent that you know what is going on, there may be less for the police to go on.

Re the electoral roll, if someone is an EU citizen or a citizen of a Commonwealth country they can vote. In practice because it is so often used for credit checks, I find that people who are not even Commonwealth citizens sometimes register. I just hope they do not vote.

G_M

Naive amateur landlord; Gumtree; What a combination!

When choosing an agent, do so carefully and thoroughly, not as a result of a phonecall from who knows where.

When choosing a tenant, do so carefully and thoroughly.

There are ways to select tenants and ways to end up in trouble.

MikeyC123

Just in the process of posting on gumtree scams forums section, They were allegedly a vietnam couple looking though person I was speaking to as agent sounded very english.

I made out to "agent"[sic] that it would appear the clients had been pulling the wool over his eyes. clearly I know otherwise but didnt go on an all out attack so he might preserve the contact details he used.

I would love to know what their end game was too, would be a great one for one of those TV programmes that sting people :money:

MikeyC123

G_M wrote: »

Naive amateur landlord; Gumtree; What a combination!

When choosing an agent, do so carefully and thoroughly, not as a result of a phonecall from who knows where.

When choosing a tenant, do so carefully and thoroughly.

There are ways to select tenants and ways to end up in trouble.

Yep, we all make mistakes, fortunately no harm done and I share my experience such that others dont fall foul of similar, my heads not too big to know when I have made a mistake.

RAS

MikeyC123 wrote: »

I would love to know what their end game was too, would be a great one for one of those TV programmes that sting people :money:

Wakey baccy?

Jowo_2

Vietnamese/chinese cannabis growers have the reputation of offering to pay the first 6 months of the tenancy in cash up front but are supposed to have wised up to their reputation and present tenants of non-vietnamese appearance.

I suppose the Police would have been more interested if you'd done their dirty work and hadn't alerted the 'agent' to your knowledge of their scam, by agreeing for the tenant to view the property so the police could have collared them there or used the opportunity to gather more intelligence. That's blown now.

http://www.directlineforbusiness.co.uk/residentialproperty/landlord-insurance-articles/cannabis-farms.htm

I also read that some cannabis farms have been discovered with booby trapped entrances, designed to electrocute anyone entering..

MikeyC123

They already had viewed it Jowo so I'm sure they would of smelt a rat, that said I might just put an advert in the paper for free weed with the guys phone number, it still rings out lol

myhouse_2

MikeyC123 wrote: »

Yep, we all make mistakes, fortunately no harm done and I share my experience such that others dont fall foul of similar, my heads not too big to know when I have made a mistake.

It would only have been a mistake if you'd handed over cash. As long as you didn't do that, you've just lost some time, and wasted some of the scammers' time.

FraudBuster

To help understand which fraud you've been affected by, we've categorised them into an alphabetical list.

http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/a-z_of_fraud#T

MikeyC123

Indeed, no cash lost, glad I accompanied her round the property, When I think back about her asking if the place was on a water meter and if it was a big loft for storage it kind of makes sense now, :rotfl:my other half says she will be there next time and she would of spotted it, lol