The rise of online rental property advertising has led to a surge in property scams. Criminals are fraudulently offering properties to prospective tenants and then stealing deposits. In a recent case, a scammer rented a property via popular short-term letting website Airbnb and then advertised it on Gumtree.<\/p>\n
Fraudulent Property Listing<\/strong> Operation Falcon<\/strong> The tenant had managed to take a photo of the fake landlord, which the police are now circulating in the media, in the hope that somebody is able to identify the perpetrator.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this type of fraud is all too common. Most scammers advertise<\/a> their fake properties on websites like Gumtree, so it is always worth keeping a check online to see if your properties every pop up for rent, especially if you use Airbnb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The rise of online rental property advertising has led to a surge in property scams. Criminals are fraudulently offering properties to prospective tenants and then stealing deposits. In a recent case, a scammer rented a property via popular short-term letting … Continue reading
\nIt wasn\u2019t long before a fish took the bait. The victim in question contacted the fake landlord and arranged a viewing of the property. He was shown around and seemingly happy with the place, arranged for an advanced payment to be transferred to the landlord<\/a>. Shortly after the money transfer went through, the landlord stopped responding to calls and text messages, so the victim went to the police.<\/p>\n
\nIt soon became apparent that the fake landlord did not own the property and therefore had no authorisation to let it out. The money paid as a deposit was sent to a stolen bank account and withdrawn almost immediately. An investigation was launched by the Met\u2019s Operation Falcon department, set up to deal with online fraud and linked crime.<\/p>\n