Rental scams: a tale too good to be true

Hello all, thanks Sean for writing this. This is the full statement SpareRoom have shared with us in response to Sean’s story:

We have a dedicated full time team of moderators at SpareRoom whose sole purpose is to keep scams and spam out of our listings. Every ad is scanned by a complex set of bespoke filters to look for triggers and key signals, then everything is checked manually.

In a few rare instances, the warning signs don’t come till a user contacts an advertiser, so having people report anything suspicious helps us weed out those few.

Sean’s experience and the Facebook message contain some classic scam warning triggers, so it’s useful to unpick them a little.

Here are a few things to look out for:

1) ‘It seemed all too good to be true’ – this is the simplest warning sign. If something seems to good to be true it’s almost always because it is – trust your instincts.

2) ‘She ignored my suspicion and insisted we take the conversation off the website and on to email’ – There are two things in here. Firstly, the question Sean asked about the accuracy of the ad was brushed over, and, secondly, the landlord suggested taking the conversation onto email. That’s fine, but one of the benefits of keeping things within the SpareRoom messaging system, at least till you’re sure things are moving forward, is that we can monitor messages for any other red flags. That doesn’t mean we read messages, just that anything suspicious triggers a flag we can then investigate. It also means if we find an ad is a scam we can contact everyone who’s been messaging the advertiser to warn them.

3) ‘A day later, I received an email, but this time from ‘Rachel Ryan’’ – Inconstancies are always cause for concern and should make you think twice, especially with fundamental things like the name of the person you’re speaking to.

4) ‘Her use of English wasn’t great’ – this in itself isn’t an issue but if the language deteriorates quickly compared to the ad it could be a sign of a scam.

5) ‘She asked us to a Western Union transfer’ – you should never use services like Western Union to send money to people you don’t know as they’re entirely untraceable.

6) ‘We were meant to see the property tomorrow morning, she made up a reason on the phone and said let’s do it next week’ – if a landlord makes us an excuse why you can’t see the property before you pay anything then walk away. Never hand over any cash until you’ve seen the property and met the landlord. If that’s not possible, for example if you’re moving from one area to another, be extra vigilant in checking all the other possible signs of a scam and, if in doubt, call SpareRoom’s customer services team.

How can a landlord check tenant reference and ability to pay rent and any tips on advertising

BE AWARE OF ROOMBUDDIES
This advert is fraudulent, please DO NO GIVE THEM ANY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.roombuddies.co.uk/rooms-to-rent/5B740E77BB2A0

I have recently two days ago been a victim of a scam, my daughter found an apartment on roombuddies.co.uk, made contact with Zara via email, this person made out to be hard of hearing and was very pushy with a deposit to secure this apartment, and informed us that she works in London and has been messed around by other potential students. She is very convincing through emails, sending an actual passport picture, other documents, solicitors letters, record of certificate of title deed of property, all fake documents except passport. We transfered £600.00 into her account, with a letter signed that if we didnt like the apartment she will return the deposit. On the day of the viewing of – 22 Baldwin Street, Bristol, BS1 1NR, (note this property does not exist), she demanded more money to be transferred over to her account if we wanted to go ahead with the viewing and to move in straight away, I got a little suspicious and started asking further questions, then a Nigerian guy rings and informs me he is her solicitor, cannot speak a proper word of english demanding more money, called Zara on her mobile many times, no response.
I have emailed Roombuddies 5 times, as the advert is still live, and other poor students will be ripped off, but they have not responded or taken the advert down. I have informed my bank, hoping I will get my money back, also reported to the Police and Actionfraud. PLEASE BE AWARE ITS A SCAM, DO NO USE ROOM BUDDIES!