London Accommodation - cityoflondonhomes

[Ralph]

Hi listsinc

Thank you for providing these fake website, it will go a long way to keeping people from being scammed.

If you could please post or forward the email headers it will be a big help in getting these sites closed.

If you dont know how to retrieve headers, let us know which email provider you use and we can give you specific instructions.

When posting headers, please be sure to remove your own name and email address

If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask

[David Jansen]

the site www.kortisproperties.com is taken down.

[slinkychang]

Hello,

I think I have just stumbled on a new website with the same scam. I started to worry today that the deal I found was too good to be true. When I wanted to book the flat they asked for a Western Union payment.

I saw the listing on Gumtree and then received this response:

Dear Sir,

Our Marylebone Apartment (1 Bedroom) , London is available on those dates.

The price for your duration is £665 for the 19 nights.

All bills, linen and towels are included in the price.

Payable is a refundable damage deposit, £200. This includes any
damage to the property and any outstanding telephone calls. If the
property is left in a mutual state and there are no outstanding telephone calls this will be refunded on departure.

In order to secure the property 30% payment is required with the damage deposit and cleaning fee. The remainder is due on arrival.
If you paid full on booking then subject to a 5% discount.

30% deposit is £199 plus the £200 refundable security deposit.

Total deposit required is: £399.

We will send you our booking form and Bank details, if you wish to proceed.

once we receive the form and payment then you will be booked into the property.

You can view more informations from our website: http://www.londonflat-lettings.co.uk
Details of this site have been passed on for investigation - Ralph


Let us know your thoughts,

Alan & sally Humphrey

http://www.londonflat-lettings.co.uk

Then they proceeded to ask me to secure my booking by sending payment by Western Union and even sent me my nearest Western Union office (without my prompting).

I double checked the whois registry on the website and it was only created a month ago. I'm glad I saw this forum because the name and strategy sounds exactly the same. I'm glad I didn't send any money. How does someone report these people? I think I found at least 3 other websites that are the same kind of scam.

[Ralph]

Hi slinkychang, welcome to Scamwarners.

How to report these scams?, You just did ,well done

We have some members and associates who are very good with getting fake sites closed so I will make sure that the see this post and they will take action.

If you have any more, please post them as well and they will be investigated also.

In order to assist them to get the sites closed, could you please include the email headers (with your own email address and details removed) which will help them to get the sites closed.

[slinkychang]

Thanks.

I think I do have a few more sites that seem suspicious.

http://lsoadeluxehomes.co.uk/index.html They also wanted a Western Union payment
http://www.central-london-properties.com Their website was also just registered a month ago

The one's I'm not sure about but I'm really hoping might be legit are:

http://www.shortlet-london.com
http://www.studioflat.co.uk
http://www.uniqletts.com
http://www.holidayapartments.co.uk

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with these last four websites?

Details of sites passed on for investigation - Ralph

[slinkychang]

Ralph,

I'm not sure what you mean by email headers. I use Gmail. Can you please explain?

Another site that is a possible fraud is: http://www.suitablecitysapartment.com/

[Ralph]

If you open the email you received from these people then go to the top right corner of the email beside where is says "reply" you will see a down pointing triangle, if you click on it an options box will open.

The second option from the bottom is "show original" click on that and the header will open in a new window.

If you can copy and paste that into this thread or a PM to me it will help in getting the fake site closed.

If you do post it, be sure to remove your name and email address, it could appear twice, obviously if you send it in a PM it is not so important to remove your details.

[Crispy Duck]

Hello, slinkychang.

I've had a quick look at the web sites you asked about:

shortlet-london.com

Domain Name.......... shortlet-london.com
Creation Date........ 2008-11-25
Registration Date.... 2008-11-25
Expiry Date.......... 2010-11-25
Organisation Name.... Vlad Hilton
Organisation Address. 135 Elm Drive
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. London
Organisation Address. HA2 7BZ
Organisation Address. London
Organisation Address. GREAT BRITAIN (UK)

From Companies House:

Name & Registered Office:
LUCKONI TRADING & INVESTMENTS LTD
135 ELM DRIVE
HARROW
MIDDLESEX
HA2 7B2
Company No. 05941299

Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 20/09/2006

=================================
studioflat.co.uk

Domain name:
studioflat.co.uk

Registrant:
Studioflat

Registrant type:
Unknown

Registrant's address:
11 Stafford Court
Kensington High Street
London
W8 7DJ
United Kingdom

Registrar:
ACTIVE 24 ASA t/a Active 24 [Tag = ACTIVEISP-NO]
URL: http://www.active24.com

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 19-Feb-2000
Renewal date: 19-Feb-2012
Last updated: 23-Mar-2010

Address on web site:
19 Linden Gardens,
Notting Hill Gate,
London W2 4HD

Address on 'Terms & Conditions' page:

(17) Our details
The full name of our company is Wynne Davies Ltd.
We are registered in England & Wales under registration number 3740705.
Our registered address is 77-79 High Street, Egham, Surrey TW20 9HY.
You can contact us by email to [email protected]

From Companies House:

Name & Registered Office:
WYNNE DAVIES LIMITED
GLADSTONE HOUSE
77-79 HIGH STREET
EGHAM
SURREY
TW20 9HY
Company No. 03740705

======================================================
uniqletts.com

Registrant:
Uniqletts (UNIQLETT320)
Unit 7, 23 Redan Place,
London, W2 4SA
London W2 4SA, , W2 4SA
GB

Domain name: uniqletts.com

Administrative and Technical contact:
Master, Host (HM6761)
One.com
Kalvebod Brygge 45
Copenhagen V, 1560 DK
[email protected]
+45.46907100 Fax: +45.70205872

Record created: 2009-10-02 14:52:28
Record last updated: 2009-10-02 14:52:32
Record expires: 2010-10-02 13:52:00

One year registration appears suspicious!!

However, from Companies House:

Name & Registered Office:
UNIQLETTS LIMITED
167 LATYMER COURT
HAMMERSMITH ROAD
LONDON
W6 7JQ
Company No. 07055697

=========================================================
holidayapartments.co.uk

Domain name:
holidayapartments.co.uk

Registrant:
Holiday Serviced Apartments Limited

Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 1880759)

Registrant's address:
2 Moor Park Road
Northwood
Middlesex
HA6 2DN
United Kingdom

Registrar:
Skymarket Limited [Tag = SKYMARKET]
URL: http://www.skymarket.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 27-Nov-1996
Renewal date: 27-Nov-2010
Last updated: 29-Nov-2008

From Companies House:

Name & Registered Office:
HOLIDAY SERVICED APARTMENTS LIMITED
52 HIGH STREET
PINNER
MIDDLESEX
HA5 5PW
Company No. 01880759

===============================
suitablecitysapartment.com

Domain Name: SUITABLECITYSAPARTMENT.COM
Registrar: RANGER REGISTRATION (MADEIRA) LLC.
Whois Server: whois.register.com
Referral URL: http://www.register.com
Name Server: DNS095.B.REGISTER.COM
Name Server: DNS207.C.REGISTER.COM
Name Server: DNS247.A.REGISTER.COM
Name Server: DNS249.D.REGISTER.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 06-may-2010
Creation Date: 06-may-2010
Expiration Date: 06-may-2011

One year registration!

From their web site:

© 2005-2010, suitablecitysapartment.com  - email: [email protected] | +44 (0)704 571 4104

+44 70xxxx phone numbers are "redirect to anywhere' numbers & NOT valid UK numbers!

This one is definitely fake!

[slinkychang]

Maybe I should be starting a new thread for LONDON LETTING SCAMS!

Since I have started looking for a short let in London I must have found at least 5 fraudulent websites and at least 2 individuals.

I found some listings on Gumtree that appeared to be by individuals. I just got a reply from Regina Davies <[email protected]> who has just sent this reply to my email request to view her flat.

Thanks for the swift reply and i am more than willing to have you in
my flat. However, it is unfortunate that my past bitter experience of
inviting people to come and view my flat without any form of
confirmation of their financial ability and not keeping up to time as
at when scheduled, has brought about great loss to me. I have traveled
all the way from Ireland to take some interested candidates round my
flat because that's where i work.

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, also some do not meet up with the
appointments which has led to the dismissal of some landlords in
office by their employers.

Henceforth my lawyer and i have decided to carry out a simple test on
financial ability to pay for my rent before coming for viewing. I
would not ask you to send your bank statement. At least 2 weeks rent
and security deposit which is £ 500 which is refundable after your
first week stay in my flat, would be required from you to transfer
through Western union money transfer agent. You can make the transfer
with your name as a sender name and your partner or friend in UK as
the receiver.

Once you have done this, scan the receipt to me and if you do not
have scanner, you may write out the details on the receipt as i will
send it to my lawyer to verify if it's truly genuine and available in
your friend's custody, after verification, then we can proceed for the
viewing and you can as well tell your friend or partner to pick up the
money and also, i will refund back to you the cost of transfer when we
meet.

Kindly reply if you have more questions to ask.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards!

I've learned from reading this forum that this is a big sign for SCAM! It just infuriates me that there are so many of these out there.

[David Jansen]

Thanks for posting this Slinkychang, it will help others to recognise the scam. They ask you to transfer some money to a friend and send them the transfer receipt with all the transfer details. With those details they can pick up the money at any western union office (probably in West Africa) where they somehow can get your money without showing proper ID.

[Michael]

One down - many to go. The site suitablecitysapartment.com has been taken care of

[BastienCL]

Hi everybody,

I'm writing from Paris, and I can say that LSOA Deluxe homes, is a big SCAM !

I will be in London, for two months this summer, and i'm looking for a room.
I contact many anounce, in gumtree, and one answer me.

I contact some people in the UK, in order to know, if it's look good, and they told me, that it looks good.

All seems to be perfect, my contact in the agency, Jecris Lacuna, explained me what I have to do, he sent me a contract, I signed It and send it back to him.

He gave me an account number, in the Loyds TSB, I payed....

And you know what's happened....


Do you think, there's something I can do ? Without this money, it will be very difficult for me this summer, and I have to say, that I feel like a big ****

Thank in advance for your help

Bastien


Ps : Sorry for my english

[Crispy Duck]

Bienvenue a scamwarners, BastienCL & sorry you have been scammed.

If you sent money to the LloydsTSB account, you could try approaching your Bank & explain what has happened.

Sadly, though, it is probably too late & you have lost the money.

Can you please post the LloydsTSB account details that you were given & the Contract you were sent?

[GomerPyle]

The apartment for rent scammers are a very serious problem and the fact that they normally use Western Union is the main way to spot them. If they offered you a bank account to use it's important for us to know the details as it's going to be the only true information we will ever know about them. There is little chance of recovering your money, but it might be worth submitting a complaint through your local French police, and giving them details of the bank account.

It might be possible for us to discover whether or not the bank account has been associated with other scams and illegal activity.

[richardsonom]

Ralph, you replied to slinkychang on 17 May, regarding he alert about www.londonflat-lettings.co.uk "We have some members and associates who are very good with getting fake sites closed so I will make sure that the see this post and they will take action."

How are they getting on with their action?

On 1 June I paid money into the Santander bank account of www.londonflat-lettings.co.uk , to rent a flat in London for a week. I could not make any contact with them after that, and therefore was was unable to stay in the flat.

It is a shame that Googling www.londonflat-lettings.co.uk did not result in any mention of a scam - only adding the word "Humphrey" to the Google search came up with the slinkychang's posting. Sadly too late!

Richard