Ive been scammed out £500 by a rental scam

[MissB1988]

I have reported it to the police and the bank cant help. Im posting to see if anybody else has been scammed in any way so i dont feel so alone.

Basically i put an ad on gumtree advertising a requirement for a property tp rent tat accepts housing benefit. I was contacted. Conversations took place in email and over the phone. Documents such as tenancy agreements were sent and i parted with 500 due to the desperaton i was feeling of finding somehwere here that accepts housing benefit and needing to move aswell as a really convincing back story the fraudsters had.

They said they lived miles and miles away and that they had been let down with viewings and said people didnt have the mon ey. Me being desperate to take the place of my dreams and having the money and being totally naive handed the money over only to fi nd out later the flat didnt exist. My friend pointed out to me that the photos the fraudsters sent me had come from a selection of esate agents websites.

I know im totally naive and shouldnt have handed the mon ey over and i am now 500 out of pocket and a dream crushed. Im still able to move its just i was set on the image they painted! It would be great if theyre brought to justie but action fraud arent the quickest at letting you know whats happening and you dont go to the police direct anymore when dealing with something like this.

Anybody ever been defrauded ripped off or lost out due to being too trusting or naive?

I made an advert on gumtree stating I was looking for a room to rent, she/he contacted me via text to start with.

Email address she/he used:
[email protected]

Mobile number:
‭07451 221019‬

Not sure how to add pictures of the house she/he sent.

Feeling totally crappy :(

This scam happened to me in a town in Southampton.

How on earth is Rosemary Grant scammer still getting away with this

Because "Rosemary Grant" isn't just one person - it is several dedicated scammers working as a team to send emails, upload photos and respond to Gumtree ads.

This team is not based in the UK. The Police in the UK will be aware through things like Action Fraud but have no authority to act in Russia/West Africa/SE Asia, or indeed ask the local police to find them.

As quick as the banks find out and close one bank account, they open another.

Once the money has left the country, it can't be recalled. Banks in other countries just don't care.

This is a hugely profitable business and the people involved will be putting as much effort into refining their scam and finding new ways of doing it as they are in speaking to people by email.

Think this person is talking to my daughter about a property at the moment... saying they want the deposit up front ...pics of property are amazing ... and rent was quite low.... they can keep on waiting... and we will be contacting the police !!

Ok have been dealing with this rosemary Grant since yesterday. She is still scamming. She thinks im waiting for her solicitor to send me a tenancy agreement.
I had a feeling it was too good to be true. But she's still at it. I have not sent any money

She's doing it to me now as well. Would the police want to know?

Yes report to police.

Hi guys she is still at large under the name rosemary grant. Nearly sent her £250 today but found this post. Will be reporting to the police and will be going to let tenants know at the house she has supplied a fake tenancy for

Not a "she". To carry on this sort of scam for so long, it's a team. Posters do realise that you can call yourself anything you want online, don't you? Scammers are smart enough to know that people aren't going to fall for an advert with an obviously foreign name and a mobile number in Nigeria / Ghana / Pakistan / some other place which isn't the UK.

So they call themselves something which sounds very British and use accomplices in the UK to open up bank accounts.

Im over 6 months pregnant and She almost had me and my partner today too, she sent me her "solicitors" bank details cos shes lost her bank card, when i said id rather give it her in person at the viewing tomorrow at 6pm she got rather aggitated and said id wasted her time and she was looking for other tenant, she also gave me the bull of shes just moved jobs with nhs, i googled this, that rosemary grant is a real person but started working in warakshire in 2014, all it takes is a google search for a name and some sort of info on them these days, i googled her email address and thats what alerted me to scam aswell, also asked about her solicitor who was coming to the viewing too and was told she didnt work for any solicitors she was rosemarys personal legal adviser at which she got aggitated again and once again told me she was looking for other tenants, was told this atleast 5 times over the last 3 weeks when i questioned anything about her, please let people know to watch out for her, reported her to gumtree and gave them all the contact info i had for her, also shes being reported to actionline fraud, she sent pretty convincing tennancy agreement and title deed even had my mother in law fooled, she gets her pics off estate agents pages too
We google mapped the house and it doesnt even look the same hope she eventually gets caught she prays on the vulnerable

There are a few threads on here about Rosemary Grant.

If you look on your local council website, they should have a list of approved private landlords or agencies who rent property or housing associations.