Fraudsters lend fresh twist to online rental scam
Photo by: Sonietta46
BBC London uncovered a wily online rental scam that is striving for success in the city by using a new tactic to scam.
The typical rental scam follows a familiar script: fraudsters paste ads of rental properties at online classified sites; they ask interested renters to send across money as a deposit before they send across the keys to the apartment. The deposit sent, the victims are left high and dry, never to hear of the fraudsters again.
The new scam uses a fresh ruse to prompt renters to send across their money. The fraudsters claim they faced problems regarding rent with previous renters and presently have decided against renting out the premises unless the prospective tenants indicate they have it in them to shoulder the rent and deposit fees.
To demonstrate this, they are asked to wire across the sum of the rent and deposit fees -no, not to the scammers- but to any relative, friend or individual the renter picks! They are then asked to send a scanned copy of the transfer payment receipt to the fraudsters, which the fraudsters say will be the given proof of their financial capabilities.
Of course, this is just a blind. Fraudsters are betting, this quaint request will appear reasonable to most people, encouraging them to follow through with it. As soon as they receive the copy of the receipt, the fraudsters would walk into the nearest branch of the wire transfer agency, sporting a false-id of the person to whom the wire was originally sent. Using this id, they would lay claim to the money and walk away with it, without raising a sweat.
The scam has already reported to have made a few victims. Following its investigations into the scam, BBC revealed the fraudsters were lifting details of exclusive properties listed on one site and offering them for throwaway rents elsewhere. The present scam was using the classified site Gumtree to stage the scam. Also, they traced the email addresses of the fraudsters to Lagos, Nigeria, leading them to believe the scam was the handiwork of criminals based there.
Source: BBC
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