London Rental Scam in progress

[Grayman]

My first post....unfortunately my money is long gone...I am normally so cynical, but this time I was in a hurry, Googled the web-site and all the names I could and did not come up with anything. It was only after I sent the money did it click and I dug a bit deeper and found their MO. Classic sucker here...still in email contact with the person who still maintains it is not a scam. Will not be showing up in London at midnight with 2 kids in tow for a no-show. Got me for $500 or so...could have been worse. Just embarrassed...I normally don't do stupid things in general.

Anyway there is no actual crime yet, as I am not due to start stay until the 19th of Sep. Has anyone had any dealing with
http://www.murikay.com/ ??
got them from a (you guessed it) Craigslist London listing
http://london.craigslist.co.uk/vac/1901306638.html

I have friends who will be arriving the week before,so if I am still in contact I will try and get them to meet with these people to show them the "apartment'. Wasting my time probably..

Too bad....any feedback/advice welcome
Grayman

[Michelle]

hello Grayman

Domain Name: MURIKAY.COM

Registrant:
None
femi badmus ************@gmail.com)
22 muri adeshola street
okokomaiko
lagos,23401
NG
Tel. +234.07026652682

Creation Date: 29-Jul-2010
Expiration Date: 29-Jul-2011

A one year registration is a classic sign of a fake site, and the words 'Lagos, Nigeria' makes me shudder.

I am expect our resident Fake Site expert to be along a little later who will add more information.

[Michael]

Hi there Grayman,

Michelle was spot on with her observations. I have come across this fake site template a few times earlier. I can't remember how many exactly, I think it's the fifth one or so with that exact layout that I found. On their home page they write:

a London Serviced Apartment from I12 Rentals.

On the About Us page this becomes

a London Serviced Apartment from Murkay Rental®.

i12apartmentrentals.com was an exact copy of this site which was killed on July, 7th. I have no doubt that this is the same gang. I'm afraid that the apartments listed do not exist (they might exist, but in that case they aren't his at all and just copied from other sites) so I can already tell what the outcome will be on the request of seeing it.

I have added this to our 'to kill'-list, hopefully it won't survive much longer.