Rental Scammer - [email protected]

From: Alicia May <[email protected]>
To: Con Warner
Subject: More details about my flat in Bloomsbury, London

Hi,

Thanks for your response to my ad.The flat is two bedroom flat and below is details of the flat.

Flat address: Thanet Street ,Bloomsbury,London
Post Code: WC1H 9ER
Rent: £400 per month,all bills included for a room
Security deposit:£600 refundable after four weeks in the flat.
Minimum Stay: 1 Month(s)
Maximum stay:1 yr with the option of extending the contract after 12 months

Flat amenities:TV ,CD - DVD - Video,Radio,High-speed Internet with WiFi,Washing Machine ,dryer, Heating, iron and Ironing board,Gas cooker,oven, Electric Kettle,Toaster,Dishwasher,Refrigerator, Microwave e.t.c

The pictures of the flat are hereby attached with this email.

Local area :its only a 3 minute walk away from russel square tube station, and 5minutes away from kingscross/st pancras tube station.

the flat is only 7minutes walk from ucl, soas, birckbeck and hult university. also very near (literally 2 min) is the brunswick centre, with a big waitrose, restaurants, cinema and more. also some 24/7 shops.

all buses and night buses stop at russel square or kingscross/st pancras.

Could you tell me a bit about yourself and where you are presently located now?

Will you be able to take good care of my flat like your own?

Are you capable of funding the rent and refundable deposit before moving in?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,
Alicia.

This person asks for proof that you are able to pay the deposit and rent due to a string of time wasters.
This proof is in the form of a Western Union or MoneyGram payment either to him, your friend or a family member.

Sounds safe. It's not!

At other times, this person asks for a deposit payment via Western Union or Moneygram with the promise that they will send the keys through a courier company.

In either case, if payment is made and you give this person the details, they will collect the money.
You will not hear from them again.

If you are reading this because you are looking for property to rent, and you are in contact with this thief you are probably searching Craigslist, Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment before viewing, then it will also be a scam. Please forward the mail to me at the address in my signature line and I will investigate and list them if necessary.

Subject: Email me back to proceed

Hi,

Thanks for your email and interest in my flat. There's no problem if you will be arriving on 28th that means I will need to hold unto one of the rooms for you till your arrival but before doing that I will need to be sure of your readiness and capability because I will not want a situation whereby I will secure the room for you and you will not turn up when you arrive.I have had several cases of people we had a deal for viewing and fail to turn up is either they cannot afford the rent or the security deposit required. Some outside tenants do not have the money to pay the rent and yet they disturb the landlord to arrange a viewing with their friend or relative who are in London.

This is what you will need to do in order to secure the room, you will need to make a transfer of a month rent plus security deposit (£400+£600=£1000) via Western Union Money Transfer using your name as the receiver of the money while you use the name of someone that's close to you as the sender of the money so that when you arrive London you will be the one to collect the money and pay me after you have viewed the flat and ok with it.

You are doing this just to be sure of your seriousness and capability before securing the room for you because I will not want a situation whereby the room will be reserve for you and you will not turn up when you arrive that's why I want you to do the transfer and you will need to email me the scanned copy of the transfer receipt for confirmation before securing the room for you.

I do not want you to have the feeling that I am asking for money BEFORE you see what you are renting because I know that payment is meant to be done AFTER you have seen the flat and okay with it that is why I said you should make the transfer to yourself so that you will be the one to receive the money and pay me in person after the viewing.

You don't need to worry about the transfer charges, I will personally refund it back to you,I'm doing this just to make sure everything is perfect before securing the room for you.

Let me know if you are ok with this arrangement so that we can proceed.

Kind regards,
Alicia.