Escapology

Wow, I can't believe what a lucky escape we had.

We've been going back and forth for the last few days, trying to decide if this situation with the flat we want to rent is a) legitimate and b) worth the hassle.

While it's true that no-one should ever be asking you for cash before you've even viewed the premises, Jenny didn't ask us to send any money to her. She just asked that we prove we had enough for the deposit by transferring the money between our accounts and faxing her a copy of the receipt. We'd spoken about the possibility of a scam, and after going through all the options we figured there wouldn't be any way for her to get her hands on the money if we did it like that.

We checked with the post office about the rules for moneygrams, and basically if Eyes and I went in there together, he could transfer the money from his account to me while I was standing with him, and I could pick up the cash within 10 minutes. It seemed foolproof, and the post office explained the ways in which they ensure that the recipient of the money is the correct person.

So we thought we'd covered every angle.

Then this morning Scarf asked for the e-mail thread from Jenny so she could check it with an estate agent, just to make sure. She came back with links to a set of posts on Gumtree.com, detailing a massive scam that has been going on for months in London!

It works like this:

Scammers post ads on various websites advertising properties for rental. When you contact them, you get a reply (in bad English - the scammers are obviously all foreigners) detailing how they have been messed around by people not pitching up for viewings or arriving but not having money for the deposit. They then request that you prove you have the money by doing a moneygram. Some of the e-mails request that you transfer the money to their (the scammer's) account. Unbelievably, at least half the people posting replies on Gumtree actually fell for this. Other e-mails, such as Jenny's, request that you make the transfer to a friend you trust, or even to yourself. This of course leads you to believe that there is no room for scamming - your friend / you will go pick up the cash. But in the interim, they ask that you fax them the receipt of transfer. What it didn't say in our e-mail, but what is evident from all the other posts, is that the scammer requests the receipt to be sent while the money is still sitting at the post office, not after you have picked it up. This is where they get the information from to go and pick up the money, pretending to be you. So our plan, to be right there to pick up the cash as it came through, would in this instance have prevented Jenny from stealing our money. But everyone who got caught faxed through the receipt BEFORE picking up the money, thereby handed over the info the scammers needed to steal it. Also, in many instances, people faxed through copies of their passports and/or bank statements to prove who they were and that they were 'serious' about the flat, giving the scammers absolutely everything they needed for the theft. These poor people have now found e-mails and ads on the web in their names - obviously once the scammers have used a particular identity once, they change it to avoid a trail.

So although nothing would have happened to our money had we done it like we planned, I'm relieved that we didn't get entangled in this mess.

It just goes to show, be wary of trusting a private lessor in London. Of course, when agency fees can rocket to £500 just for finding you a flat, it's easy to see why going the private route is so attractive.