London Accommodation - cityoflondonhomes

Hello richardsonom, welcome to scamwarners.

I'm sorry to hear you found us too late

As I'm one of the site killers working on this I have to admit we are having a rough time with this one. There are a few short options to take a site down, but this has failed with this site as there was 'not enough evidence' (even though in my eyes it was crystal clear). This ofcourse doesn't mean that we have given up on it, it will just take us a bit longer. I can assure you that we haven't forgotten about this site and we are still working on it

If possible, could you forward the emails you had with these scammers to my adress (see my signature)? Please include the full headers of the mails. If you don't know how to extract headers, let us know what provider you are using (yahoo, gmail, hotmail..) and we'll be happy to explain. I will need the full headers as they are key part in evidence.

Update: it's been pushed under the daisies. Thanks to all of you that sent us evidence

Good job guys! I saw that the site is down now. Hopefully http://lsoadeluxehomes.co.uk/ will be next.

Summer is here in London and it is boom time for the holiday let/vacation rental scammers. I've found these three scammer sites, all offering flats to rent in London at a third of their real cost. Most of the details of the holiday apartments and houses have been copied from online ads offering these places for sale. Beware of any ad for a holiday let that points up 'guest cloakrooms' and 'French windows' rather than proximity to London's main attractions and how many people it can sleep.

http://i12apartmentrentals.com/chelsea.html offering a flat in Chelsea with a view of Tower Bridge (5 miles away). Clearly a scam.

http://irentapartment.net/islington.html (apartment on Pentonville Rd which is '5 mins from the river Thames' - it's a 40 mins brisk walk) Sam Fraser [email protected] is advertising lots of apartments on Craig's List with unfeasible descriptions and linking the ads to this site - clearly none of the apartments belong to 'Sam'.

http://www.centrallondonflats.com/ - all its property descriptions copied from Foxtons estate agents. The site is offering flats to rent at £340 a week in London's smartest areas that Foxtons is selling for £1m+

Any chance Scamwarners can kill these sites?

Picking out a line from the first one and doing a search it comes up with many sites using the same line, based on that I would think the site killers will have chance.

"With London hotel prices soaring, visitors are often forced to pay premium prices for a"

Right click here and open in new window to see the search result

I don't have the time to investigate thoroughly at the moment but it doesn't take me long to see they are fake. I've added them to our 'to kill'-list.

Sorry I haven't been following up on this thread, I should note that
*i12apartmentrentals.com
is now closed down.

Hi there - first time I've been on here.

I've been looking for some info about Uniqletts as my girlfriend and I are planning on moving into a flat they have. Our concern is they are not registered with any of the appropriate bodies – eg. National Landlord Association, etc. You don’t have to be registered with them, but would make sense I would have thought. Anyway, we’re speaking to them tonight to ask them a few questions. The concern is we’ve already put down a deposit.
What is in their favour is that I have actually visited their office – it’s in Bayswater, and it all seems legit. One of their staff, who is a really nice guy and not in sleazy estate agent, someone is trying to scam me kind of way, showed us around a flat which was fantastic, and which we are moving into. To be honest, reading some of the other stories on here, they don’t appear to be scammers. They’re not asking for money upfront, there’s no talk of Western Union, they have a proper office, I can always get hold of them, they’ve given me a receipt, they use proper deposit holding companies (mydeposit), we’ve seen the flat, etc.

Has anyone got anything else to add about the company?

Cheers, BadgerMuff.

Welcome BadgerMuff

The Scam Warners and Scam Advisors here at Scamwarners are extremely good at detecting what is a scam. However we can't guarantee what isn't a scam. (subtle difference).

From the things that you have described about your encounters with the Letting Agent, things seem quite normal.

However:-

If you are referring to this company:-

http://www.uniqletts.com/

If it was myself dealing with these people, I would be asking why their web-site is only registered for one year and is due for renewal on 02-oct-2010 - not the hallmark of a professional company.

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

I think you might have hit the nail on the head - they are a bit unprofessional, but I think that's because they're a new company. Having been to see them last night, the people who run the company are young and new to the game. The registering of the website for just the one year seems an oversight rather than something underhand - I get the impression they genuinely do not understand/are aware of things like that. They still seem to be in the process of getting to grips with the whole letting agent game. They are registered with mydeposits, which is good news, and we got the reassurances we wanted, and are now progressing with renting the flat. Perhaps I sound naive (I promise you I'm not - I'm well known amongst my friends as being an eternal pessimist) but to be honest, they are far more genuine and pleasant to deal with than some of the people I've dealt with who work for the more, ahem, "reputable" estate agents.

We move in next weekend - If anything else happens, then I'll let you know. But they seem a good bunch.

BadgerMuff

Another one for the list standardapartment.tripod.com

Claim to be called Standard Apartment and to be operating from 39-40 Cleveland Square, London, W2 6DA, United Kingdom.

Use the following email address for communication - [email protected] and the following redirect number for phone - +44(0) 703 598 2360

There is a warning about it on CraigsList here - http://london.craigslist.co.uk/sub/1158117291.html

I've added it to the list on Eater and will get it killed when it has been DB'd

Here's another website belonging to the same scammers: http://www.palacereservationhome.com
prices are ridiculously high and they have the exact same phone number: +44 (0)703 598 2360
I found them also while browsing Craigslist trying to find a cheap place to stay in New York.

Here's the email I've received from them, confirming it's a scam (payment only through money order or transfer):

Thank you very much for your inquiry.

For your travel dates we could offer you the following options:

Our HOLIDAY APARTMENT is $350/week.

We are available throughout that time. The cost per night is $50.00 a night,
so for 1 week the total is $350.

This includes all utilities. There is a fully equipped kitchen. We
supply all linens, and there is parking space.
There is high speed wireless internet for your convenience. If you are
interested we take 40% and refundable $200 security deposit to confirm
your booking and the rest of the balance on your arrival.

Or you may pay in full at the time of the booking. The amount of 40%
would be $140 plus $200 security deposit making $340, we will secure
and reserve the apartment if you make this deposit .

We accept money transfer or bank transfer only.

Please let us know if you are interested and we can go from there.

You can view more pictures and information on our website at:
http://www.palacereservationhome.com

Yup - that's a definate scam. It belongs to a gang I've been pursuiting for a few months now, this is their 8th site. I've added it to the 'to kill'-list, me or another one of the site hunters will get it closed down asap. Thanks for reporting and posting the mails! You may have prevented many people falling for this scam that way!

Hey guys,
I was just about to book something with these guys...

http://palacereservationhome.com/

Im SO glad I found you first.

Just got their email - ANGRY! They could have destroyed my break.

How can I help take them DOWN?

Cheers,
Renee

I can understand your feelings wedzy, but you have already beaten this scammer and lost them your money by taking the sensible precaution of looking these people up on Google, but you can't take it personally because even when that website goes down, another will pop up to replace it. It's therefore a fight against all scammers rather than just one scammer or one fake website.

Getting fake sites reported here will move them pretty quickly to the top of a search any person makes, so that's the quickest and easiest way to combat scammers and fraudsters. Behind the scenes we have members doing the technical task of getting the sites taken down, but that takes time, so a report or warning here is a great stopgap measure that'll reduce their potential income from victims by a substantial sum. Beyond that there is a lot more work done by members to combat scammers and their frauds, some of it in contact with law enforcement agencies - and we are all unpaid volunteers.

We can rarely be sure that a scammer isn't operating other websites, so by us dealing with them all we know we have the greatest effect.

Seems like I've fallen victim too. I saw a post on Criagslist using a site called http://talabaymo.com I feel like an idiot, because it all seems so clear now. They kept telling me the bank wire did not process, and to re-send it, which we did not but sadly it seems as if the majority of the damage is done.

The account on the wire belongs to SAMUEL FRASER -- 68 leinster square,Bayswater,London W2 7PR,United Kingdom. The phone number was +44 (0) 7519569598

Anyway I wanted to get the site out there so people can know its a fraud.