Housing scams
Scams involving students looking for accommodation are increasingly popular and often target international students
The scam happens when a potential tenant asks a potential landlord advertising on a website such as Gumtree if they can view a property. After a couple of emails (or sometimes straight away) the prospective landlord will describe a reason for not being able to show the tenant around (e.g. they have been let down by tenants before and need to know tenants are serious, or that they live abroad and need assurances the tenant has the money before travelling to show the tenant around the property) but if the prospective tenant can prove they have money upfront they'll make the effort to show the tenant the property. The prospective tenant then transfers money through Western Union or MoneyGram to a friend and photocopies the receipt to show the landlord. You may feel that is safe since you are not sending money. The problem is however, if they send your details on a Western Union form you are opening yourself up to identity theft. It is suspected that false ID is then used by the potential landlord to debit the money from Western Union.
There are also cases where students have made email contact with a purported agent/landlord, meet them up and are shown property, paid a holding deposit and then are not able to find the person again.
Our advice is:
· Use a letting agent or properties accreditated by the Midland Landlord Accreditation Scheme
· NEVER transfer money until a property has been viewed and make sure the company or landlord is legitimate
· NEVER transfer money via Western Union/MoneyGram to a landlord or for payment of goods
· Students are customers who don't have to pay to view or prove anything to a landlord prior to agreeing to let
· Should landlords wish to have proof that a student has the money to pay the rent this should be arranged as is the industry standard on a contractual basis via a guarantor and/or references from employers/banks ("no contract, no payment")
· Report scams as and when they are found (Gumtree now warns against money transfers through Western Union/MoneyGram when customers go through to the message page of the Gumtree site when responding to adverts)
· If it looks dodgy, it probably is. If you think something is dodgy and contact the Advice Centre
· Always perform an internet search on the content of the emails received to make sure they are not re-hashed scammed text (Gumtree forums are also good for reporting and hearing about suspicious behaviour or particular trends)