Dodgy Gumtree 'rental' replies?

littlemouse122

I wanted some opinions about this. I recently put a 'flat wanted' request on Gumtree for my local area as I thought there would be no harm in looking. I have had some rather strange replies from people with terrible English that sound very similar although they come from different email addresses. The replies offer great soundling properties at a good rate for the area and apparently includes utility bills and comes with things like tv and internet connection and a very low security deposit. I am sure there is something dodgy going on but not sure if it is subletting council properties on a wide scale or something else.

Here is one of the replies (this one from someone callling themself Lizzy Mary Johnson;

"Hello.
The property is still available .The property is located at
AlexandraPark Road,London,
N10 2AH along Prickett & Ellis Residential with lots of homeutilities
like;refrigerator,microwave,dishwasher,dryer,iron,bed
sheet,,gascooker,Tv set with Central Heating System, internet
service, car park and so on.The rent is £230 per week including the
utility bills and £350 for the security deposit which is refundable if
there are no damages occurance in the flat. I await to read from you
soon, so that we can arrange for the viewing of the properties if
necessary."

Here is another reply which is almost exactly the same from someone claiming to be 'James Houston';

"Hello.
The property is still available .The property is located at Muswell Hill Broadway,
London,N10 2QR with lots of home utilities
like;refrigerator,microwave,dishwasher,dryer,iron,bed sheet,,gas
cooker,Tv set with cable,Central Heating System, internet service,
car park and so on.The rent is £1000 per month including the utility
bills and £550 for the security deposit which is refundable if there
are no damages occurance in the flat. I await to read from you soon,
so that we can arrange for the viewing of the properties if
necessary.

I am a landlord and not an agent and i hope to hear back from you."

I would be interested to hear peoples opinions on what is going on here...

weegie.geek

Follow one of them up (or at least appear to want to) and I'm sure the scam will unfold.

You'll probably be asked to pay a deposit to see it, or you'll go to see it and you'll be kidnapped, bundled off to Nigeria and held to ransom.

I'm not sure I like the idea of a telly with central heating though.

I await to read from you soon.

Generali

Maybe someone has set up a scam where they hope to get your deposit and a few weeks rent out of you.

Perhaps someone has provided a service for a group from a particular place in London (Eastern European maybe?) so that LLs that don't speak English can send a response to an enquiry without having to pay for an expensive translator.

epz_2

it sounds like some search engine type bot where users tick relevant boxes for stuff the flat has and enter fields where the details are needed.

might even be run by gumtree itself

devils_advocate

Lets see...

I rent a nice house - 6 month contract, pay deposit and first months rent. Don't move any of my stuff in. In the first month, I then rent it out to 5 different people, to move in in 2 weeks time. collect deposit and 1st months rent fro each of them. Give them a set of keys. Disappear having made a great profit!

salduck

both of them sound dodgy as hell!!
However I would like to let you know that I have on several occasions found flatmates throught gumtree and also found my current flat through there as well so just be careful but there are some genuine ones on there!

ka7e

London Gumtree has an Accommodation Forum where scammers are regularly named and shamed!
http://forums.gumtree.com/forum-1.html

space_rider

Don`t do it My daughter had that same email and her father and I decided that because it is in such poor english it is a scam. besides it sounds too good to be true.

pinkshoes

Both blatantly written by the same person, and yet 2 different names, both names sounding very "English", and yet could not possibly have been written by someone where English was the first language, as the mistakes are basic! Perhaps foreign or computer translated.

I would ignore them!! Can't you apply to accommodation already offered? I've advertised things for sale on gumtree before, and got many dodgy replies, all with bad English, and often as if it was a generic computer robot automatic reply!

pennylane99

wasnt there something in the news a while ago re a gumtree advert where the same flat was rented out to several dfferent couples, and they only found out about each other on the day they all moved in.

The guy had made off with all their deposits and rent in advance....and the actual landlord of the property knew nothing about it

Bf109

Do NOT meet anyone other than in a public place with loads of CCTV around and PLENTY of witnesses to back up your side of the story for when you get raped and robbed.

Gumtree? Beware! There are lots of nasty people on there waiting to take advantage.