My property was used in a scam and I'm livid

[WaterWipee]

My current tenant is moving out in a few weeks so I placed an ad online looking for a new tenant.

In short, scammers replicated my advert and booked a viewing. However instead of attending the viewing themselves they sent a couple who had replied to the scam replica of my genuine ad.

The couple were then persuaded to pay a lump sum.

Last night at 9pm, they freaked out my tenant by trying to get into the property claiming that they had paid for it and had signed a fake contract.

I don't even know how to help this couple get their money back. Does anyone know if a bank will help recover the transferred funds?

This is awful. People are shit.

Property listing + Google Street view. Easy peasy.

My sister used an agent who didn't manage. The Tennant then sublet to someone who didn't pay the rent, trashed the house and threatened to kill my DBIL.

Agents aren't a guarantee of anything.

Can you place an advert without giving the exact address out before you e made direct contact ?

This happened to my brother and his room mate a few years ago, despite my warnings! Bless him he was a student at the time and a bit naive… never did get the money back sadly, either of them.

Some awful people out there, I’m sorry this has happened to them OP, it’s not your fault at all despite what some are suggesting. These scammers are wily and fool so many

Sounds like the scammers made direct contact with the OP to book a viewing, then sent the victims in at the booked time and date, and got the address from that conversation.

Regardless, a picture of the outside of the house + street view is usually enough to work out the address.

My son was nearly scammed like this. Did an in person viewing - everything seemed ok until they would only accept deposit and first months rent by cash or bank transfer, no credit card. Then the bank account was in Ireland and in a different name. So many red flags, he walked away and reported it to the police and the listing it was being advertised on. Long story short it was an air bnb flat that the scammers had rented for the week and did multiple viewings. Several people had paid up.

I'm confused at how this wasn't picked up when they viewed. Surely the person (OP?) conducted the viewing and spoke to the couple. How did it not transpire that they had responded to a different ad, or that they had been corresponding with a third party prior to the viewing?

They should still contact the bank to say they have been scammed. Even if the money cannot be retrieved sometimes the bank will cover it if they have been as careful as they could before handing over the money. At the very least the account used will be closed and the name/addresses on it out on the banned list so it will not be able to be used again.

Quite re: agent. Many are useless, even the big names.

I'm unsure. From the information passed to me, it sounds like the victims saw my advert on Spareroom and then saw the duplicate ad asking for less rent.

rentals are in high demand and people are desperate at the moment. It’s really easy to fall for these scams

Your post displays real ignorance, sorry.

A credit check, if a landlord has access to the facility, takes less than five minutes online (probably even less than that if the party/parties being checked don't have more than one previous address) and reference checks require a phone call or email and then it's dependent on how long the recipient takes to provide the information.

Also, you're assuming the rental advertised was for a long-term AST.

Reread my OP until you get how it happened. The information is there.

The answer's in my OP.

Your OP doesn't state that you put your (the rental) address in the ad but from your reply I'm assuming you did?
Just I wouldn't have thought that was common practice, mainly for this reason - usually rental ads are eg '2-bed ground floor apt on South Road'.

Does SpareRoom have to give out the specific address?

OP gave the address to the scammers when they booked the viewing.

@OutInOutIn oh my...you're kidding, right?

It's very clear what happened

OP advertised a property

The scammers booked a viewing with the OP in order to get the address

The scammers then advertised the property as their own

The conned money out of the couple and gave them the address

It's fairly straighforward

@WaterWipee

You shouldn't have to do this but as a suggestion my mother who rents out a property always meets the prospective tenants at the car park just down the road for the first time rather than give out the address.

She does it because she doesn't want people nosing round the property before the viewing and upsetting the neighbours (it's a small very vigilant area) but it serves the same purpose

Although on the flip side I would be nervous about meeting a landlord in a car park so who knows...

I hate to break it to you but scammers don’t usually do checks. They have been known to lie about checks though (shocking, I know - fraudsters prepared to not tell the truth to their victims).

I’m fairly sure it’s the person who doesn’t realise scammers have been known to mislead people who is gullible not the OP.😂

Almost. The scammers cloned the advert immediately, and then when the (let's assume they're genuine) flat-seekers asked to book a viewing, the scammers booked a viewing with the OP and sent their victims along to that.

Or the account owner is also a victim who has been given a plausible reason to forward the majority of the money to another account, whose holder may also be a victim etc.

Eventually the money will end up in a dubious account overseas or it will be withdrawn in cash and given to one of the scammers for some plausible reason but it may go through the hands of several innocent (although gullible) parties first.

Or the account owner is also a victim who has been given a plausible reason to forward the majority of the money to another account, whose holder may also be a victim etc

Yup, some gullible people do think facilitating money laundering for cash in hand isn't a problem. Till they're left carrying the can for the whole scam.

I've seen a fake ad on Facebook where the images were taken from an estate agents listing, I recognised the house as I'd seen it myself months ago. Price on FB was suspiciously low.

This was my first thought, too.
Who wouldn't attend a viewing?

Also- they should have paid via credit card for safety.

They did attend a viewing. The scammers booked a viewing with the OP then sent the victims.

OP was expecting a couple to view and they duly turned up. Neither party realised that the person in front of them was not the person (the 3rd party scammer) they had been dealing with.