My property fraudulently offered for rent

Moobathon

Hi Everyone,

Many apologies if this post unsuitable / mis-posted.  I'm a bit stuck with where to direct - any advice enormously appreciated....

It seems my property and others in my street (perhaps elsewhere locally?) are being falsely offered for rent on Facebook (maybe on other platforms as well).  I haven't been able to find specific adverts - so perhaps the fraudster is responding to ads from people looking for accommodation in London.

Yesterday 2 people turned up at my house (separately) having supposedly secured rooms to rent - one had actually paid a deposit.  They were very disappointed to learn I have never offered rooms to rent at the property.  The same thing had happened a couple of weeks before - at the time I ignored it, assuming the person had been given the wrong address.   Talking to neighbours this has happened at at least one other nearby property.

I would like to combat this - both to help the poor people who are being conned (mostly non-UK nationals with poor English as far as I can tell); and because frankly the idea of random people turning up expecting to rent a room makes me nervous.  But I'm a bit stuck - reported to police (Action Fraud) but there may not be lots they can do?..

In addition to the police I would report this to Facebook but without evidence (ie a clear advert) I can't see what they could do either.  One of the victims gave me what details he had - a phone number and picture of the supposed landlord, but these could presumably be fake / and the number a burner.  It would seem relatively easy for a fraudster to do this - all they would need is a picture of the outside of the property (apparently someone was spotted taking pictures recently - but that's not illegal, right).  Lots of houses are genuinely rented in the street - so internal pictures are easily available.

Has anyone experienced anything like this and do you have any advice on ways to mitigate?

theartfullodger

Nasty: There's a ****ard out there who needs a good kicking.

In your shoes I'd document (so you can show you've reported it..) to local council housing department, action fraud - see
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

- and if there's any way the local police station..

plus your local councillors and whoever chairs the housing committee.. e.g. see
https://democracy.reading.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=140

- and see what the neighbours are doing.

Is there a facebook group covering your town/village?? Might be worth posting something there also,

Exodi

Moobathon said:

do you have any advice on ways to mitigate?

To be honest, I can't see how it could be mitigated except for pleading local authorities to look into it.

You wouldn't even need to physically take pictures of someones house, it's easy enough to grab pictures from Google Maps, an old estate agent listing, etc. I could create a fake listing for virtually any property in the UK. In a sense, it's similar to the people using peoples pictures in online dating scams. You can't stop someone copying publicly available images on the internet.

As there is nothing you can do to stop this, I would say the responsibility lies with the victim to ensure the platform they use is reputable and trustworthy, and to only part with cash after they've seen the property (but even then you hear of people illegally subletting properties they don't own)! Safest would be letting properties from credible estate agents, rather than craigslist ads. Probably the only trail that they have is the bank account (as banks are obliged to follow KYC rules).

Not that any of that helps you - don't own an 'in-demand' property I guess haha (that was a joke!). 

eddddy

Moobathon said:

It seems my property and others in my street (perhaps elsewhere locally?) are being falsely offered for rent on Facebook (maybe on other platforms as well).

Sadly, there are reports that suggest that about 1/3rd of ads on Facebook Marketplace are scams/fakes.

TSB say:

Facebook Marketplace currently accounts for 73 percent of all purchase fraud cases at TSB – and remains the biggest driver of fraud by volume.

Figures show £60million could have been lost by customers of all banks via Facebook Marketplace in 2023 – which is £160,000 being lost every day on the platform.

Link: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/beatthescammers/article-12973689/A-Facebook-Marketplace-ads-fake-TSB-issues-scam-warning.html

If you can find one of the fake ads, you can report it to Facebook (click on "..." > Report Listing), and they might remove it and maybe close down the account.

But the scammer can just create a new account and start again.

Perhaps the possible solutions include...

• Facebook starts verifying the identity of people who want to advertise on Facebook Marketplace

• People using Facebook Marketplace become more "scam aware" and more careful about checking people out, before giving them money

strawb_shortcake

There was a programme on several weeks back on a similar scam, and someone was advertising a bungalow as a holiday let. The owner had around 20 people knock on his door expecting to be staying there for the weekend! 

annetheman

Definitely report it to ActionFraud.

I was nearly scammed in this way.

I answered an advert for a room and the method of paying the deposit and getting the key was so convoluted, together with the strange tone and profile photo of the "Landlord" that I knew it was a scam - I kept fishing for more information including bank details/Paypal of the scammer etc then sent everything to the police, sadly to no avail. I didn't hear a peep following the report to the police but AF did follow up if I recall correctly.

I did get a response also from the estate agent whose photos I noticed where being used (they were taken from a legitimate ad and posted on SpareRoom by the fraudster). Since it was their IP, they took action also.

It's sad that people fall for it - it is very convincing if you don't know how things work in this country!

Albermarle

Definitely report it to ActionFraud.

Todays edition of You & Yours on R4, was about identity theft, and of course Action Fraud was mentioned several times.

However it seems they will only act if you actually lose money to a fraud. So in the case of the OP, they will not do anything as they were not defrauded. The people coming around having paid a deposit would be the ones who Action fraud could actually take some action with. Although they seem overwhelmed/understaffed.

pjs493

Years ago I came across a supposed rental property through Facebook marketplace. I asked the supposed landlord lots of questions about the property, was sent photos, etc. But it wasn’t until I asked to view the property that I realised it was all a scam. They were determined that I pay a deposit before viewing because of how ‘popular’ the area was. 

However, I knew the area well and soon realised that the internal photos didn’t fit with the actual address of the property from the outside (different type of windows, room placement, etc). I told them that I wasn’t going to hand over any money before viewing. They soon realised they wouldn’t get anywhere and the next thing I knew they’d blocked me on Facebook and stopped sending me emails after accusing me of being a time waster in a final effort to get me to part with some cash. 

It’s a shame these types of scams are still going on and that people are still taken in by them. Hopefully the police will do something and if you have someone else turn up, ask them to show you the Facebook advert on their phone and help them report it to Facebook too. 

ThorOdinson

Action Fraud are useless, don't waste your time. Unfortunately only the victims can do anything.