Yet another scam where con artists fraudulently deceive would-be renters out of thousands of pounds by pretending to own properties has been exposed by an estate agent in Bournemouth.
Phil Skorochod, head of Martin & Co Bournemouth, told the BBC that adverts for properties for sale are copied from legitimate websites and used in rental listings on online marketplaces, such as Facebook and Airbnb.
However, when people try to move in, after paying deposits and rental fees, they find out the property belongs to someone else, which Skorochod says understandably leaves many people feeling devastated.
He said: “It’s very simple. People pretend or purport to be the landlord or the owner of the property, and then they set up an email address similar to the name the owner and advertise the property on Facebook or Airbnb, or any of these other online media platforms, and collect tenancies.”
Skorochod has urged police to take action.
“The police do not want to get involved,” he added. “They say, “it’s not criminal, it’s a civil matter”. They’ve nothing.”
He continued: “We tried desperately to get the police involved. They don’t take details, they don’t come out, they don’t check the people. They refused to get involved.”
The BBC highlighted the case of Mary Whitbread, from Bournemouth, who paid up after a virtual viewing but has now been left homeless and around £3,000 out of pounds out of pocket.
She said she only realised she had been scammed when she showed up to move in and found a “for sale” sign on the house.
Comments (6)
I would never take a Holding Deposit or any other monies until I had sent a copy of the title deeds of my property and my photo ID.
Alternatively I would show them to the tenant who is to take the property.
I would NEVER expect a prospective tenant to pass monies to me UNTIL I had proved I owned the property.
Any LL who expects a tenant to hand over monies BEFORE the LL has proven he owns the property is a fraudster.
It would be a completely unacceptable business practice to expect prospective tenants to pay over monies BEFORE proof of ownership and LL ID has been provided to them.
Personally I much prefer the concept of a LL Licence no.
A tenant should be able to check on a National database the ID and property ownership Licence details.
Legit LL should have no problem with being licenced and their properties as well.
If LL are uncomfortable with providing their details to a National Database then they can always leave the PRS.
Mind you I believe there should also be a National Tenant database with tenants having a Tenant Passport that tenants can show to prospective LL.
Of course none of these ideas will ever be introduced.
It therefore remains for tenants to check on property and LL details.
Any LL who refuses to provide such details the tenant shouldn’t go ahead with letting with that particular LL.
The police don’t have time to investigate due to all the virtue signaling. C’mon, crime is a low priority for the wooden tops these days.
Sadly police are dis-interested, NTSELAT are unable to move swiftly with any direct action- however (given our recent experience of the same) what is great is that Industry suppliers ARE willing to move fast. The portals, TDS & CMP (all of whom ‘our’ fake agency was looking to leverage for legitimacy) all moved fast to remove the offending agency within hours of being made aware of them.
Unfortunately not quite my experience, KB. I led an almost daily campaign on Twitter highlighting an “agent” by the name of Welcome Home, that was faking listings – which was ignored by Rightmove and Zoopla for months. This was despite the previous removal action they had taken due to EYEs coverage of the original incarnation of the company, Mark Ashley Estates.
It took Zoopla over four months to take action and remove the listings.
Rightmove took ten months.
Now I don’t know what ‘harm’ could have come from those fake listings… all I know is they were clearly bogus, and that for someone(s) to have gone to the time and trouble – and no doubt substantial cost – of implementing and carrying out the deception it must be assumed there must have been a good reason for it.
But despite the constant notifications… the proof served up… nothing done to stop it. In my mind, the portals simply turned a blind eye and took whatever money was being paid them to host these fake listings.
And NTSELAT just sat back and let it happen – DESPITE their statement on EYE that they were supposedly investigating the original company.
An “investigation” that has resulted in what, precisely?
Just like the company you brought to light almost five months ago – despite you having reported it to them, and to the Met, it still has an active website – stuffed full of the same misleading and false information. Still there… still advertising their services… still advertising properties.
It seems that anyone wanting something done is alone. That anyone trying to do something is on their own.
And it is perfectly clear that the “authorities” simply ignore anything and everything.
All agents encounter this, not just Martin & Co.
The correct action is ActionFraud; not BBC.
He says he’s already been to the police and they don’t do anything so I think he’s right the next step is the press. I’ve tried reporting things to ActionFraud its a waste of time.