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  by Dion_ZA
 
For my upcoming trip I booked the 1 bed Ongar Rd apartment through http://www.cityoflondonhomes.com/
I was originally quoted £60 x 5nights = £300 + 2.5% vat = £307
50% deposit of £307 + £300 (refundable security deposit)= £453.

I did the transfer of £453 to Barclays only to be told that I had the old banking details and that they had closed the bank account down. I requested my bank to reverse the transaction(still waiting for that to happen) and did another transfer of £453 to Natwest. This was confirmed as received, and last week I was then asked to transfer the remaining £253. When querying the additional £100 I was told that this was a £50 admin fee and a £50 cleaning fee.
I protested this and was told that it was ok not to pay the additional £100. The remaining £153 was paid via Moneygram and the details sent on Monday 20 Apr 2009. Since then I have not heard anything from cityoflondonhomes.

My emails are not being responded to and I can't get through to any of the numbers on the website. A friend in the UK tried the number on the website and it was routed to a cellphone answered by a foreign guy.
The lady I dealt with via email called herself Monica Gabriel and called her husband Dave.
The email addresses used was
[email protected]
The details for the moneygram was
Receiver's name: Monica Gabriel
Address: House 12, Ongar Rd, earl’s court, London
Post code: SW6 1RL
Country: United Kingdom

Hopefully this saves someone time and money in the future.
  by AlanJones
 
This has all the hallmarks of a scam. The website gives the impression that they have been around for 5 years, but the site has only been registered since 5 March.

Here is the WhoIs info
Address lookup
canonical name cityoflondonhomes.com.
aliases
addresses 209.157.71.50


Domain Whois record
Queried whois.internic.net with "dom cityoflondonhomes.com"...

Domain Name: CITYOFLONDONHOMES.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
Name Server: NS1.MDNSSERVICE.COM
Name Server: NS2.MDNSSERVICE.COM
Name Server: NS3.MDNSSERVICE.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 05-mar-2009
Creation Date: 05-mar-2009
Expiration Date: 05-mar-2010

>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:37:16 UTC <<<

Queried whois.tucows.com with "cityoflondonhomes.com"...

Registrant:
LEIGH WALKER
24 chaffers mead
ashtead, Berkshire kt211ng
GB

Domain name: CITYOFLONDONHOMES.COM


Administrative Contact:
WALKER, LEIGH [email protected]
24 chaffers mead
ashtead, Berkshire kt211ng
GB
+1.07918637279
Technical Contact:
Admin, Domain [email protected]
3425 EDISON WAY
MENLO PARK, CA 94025
US
+1.8007972958 Fax: +1.6503647329



Registration Service Provider:
Homestead Technologies, Inc, [email protected]
800-797-2958
650-364-7329 (fax)
http://www.homestead.com



Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 05-Mar-2009.
Record expires on 05-Mar-2010.
Record created on 05-Mar-2009.

Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com

Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.MDNSSERVICE.COM
NS3.MDNSSERVICE.COM
NS1.MDNSSERVICE.COM


Domain status: clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
EDIT: I've added comments to some of their Google search results, linking to this page.
Last edited by AlanJones on Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
  by AdamAnteum
 
Welcome to Scamwarners and thank you for posting this Zion. I'm sorry to hear that you have lost money to them and hopefully your post will help others. While quickly checking out the site they claim to be around since 2003 while checking their whois information shows they just put it up on March 5 2008.
  by Arnold
 
Registrant:
LEIGH WALKER
24 chaffers mead
ashtead, Berkshire kt211ng
GB
There is such an address, but I very much doubt that the scammer lives there. Probably not even British judging by the erratic upper and lower case.
I'm sure I've seen that address before.
  by Nick Smith
 
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewto ... f=4&t=2401

I posted that this morning, but the OP decided to register here as well. There is no doubt about the fraudulent nature of the website. It's a site that uses the usual redirected phone numbers, and a very distant sounding Nigerian Gentleman answers the "bookings" phone. He hangs up when confronted. Payment by Moneygram, etc etc...
I requested a site kill, can anyone confirm whether it's been transferred over to eater or aa419?
  by Ralph
 
Yes Nick, Eater was down for quite some time today but it is back up now

I have personally passed it on to Murry who has posted it Here for further attention
  by Clair
 
As posted on eater, these sites are related scam sites.

http://citysightapartments.com (bandwith exceeded)
http://londonfurnishedapartments.com London Furnished Apartments
http://london-holiday-apartments.org London Holiday Apartments
http://londonprideapartments.com London Pride Apartments
hstrial-gjames191.homestead.com (suspended)
mallordvacationhomes.com (suspended)
  by The Enchantress
 
Just to note this;

Address: House 12, Ongar Rd, earl’s court, London
Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Post code SW5.

But Ongar Rd is in Hammersmith And Fulham London. Post code SW6.
  by Ralph
 
I am happy to report that thanks to some great behind the scenes work by the fantastic team of site killers at 419eater, this site is now dead.

Please do let us know of you notice any similiar sites open.
  by The Enchantress
 
Received information about another website linked to this scam passed on by a public spirited individual who wants this information made available to alert and save others from falling for this scam.

On behalf of the support team at Scamwarners, Thank You and Well Done. :=)
This is the website:

http://nicehome.tripod.com

Note all the apartments are 300 pounds a week (which is ridiculously cheap) and the testimonials are very suspicious. Note also they have spelt "Earls Court" incorrectly.
Website reported to site killers.
  by AlanJones
 
There are various things wrong with the site, such as 070 redirect phone number and the fact that the office address is actually a hotel.

Also, the testimonials have been nicked from various other sites.

I've reported it to Lycos, so hopefully it won't be around for much longer.
  by AlanJones
 
Lycos are quick workers - http://nicehome.tripod.com is no more.
  by The Enchantress
 
Congratulations B8er. :=)

Well done. Fast and thorough and effective.
  by Ralph
 
Thank you B8er and The Enchantress

Job well done by both of you and all while I was asleep 8)

The scammers will no longer beable to use that site to help them scam so will more than likely be handing ver more money as we speak for their next fake site

If anybody does find another please post

Also a big thank you to the person who Pmed me the information on the fake site, well done :wink:
  by Ralph
 
Thanks to a PM from the OP we have another fake site identified by this same group of scammers.

http://cohensionrentals.netfirms.com/

It has been confirmed as fake by the great team of site killers at 419eater and now in the process of being killed

Thank you Dion for letting me know

and to B8er for you continued work at making it more difficult for scammers to operate, well done once again :=)

Just adding the email address that is being used by these scammers in the hope it may alert others
[email protected]
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