Flat hunt in London once again

I am on the flat hunt in London for a temprorary stay. Some days ago I wondered what would happen if the demanded 40% of the total rent plus 200£ deposit would not arrive at the person who allegedly is the landlord or housing agency or the landlord is someone completely different than she claims to be.

That was when I started to look for references and reviews -- and could not find them. That was, however, also the day when I discovered scamwarners!

One of the first sites was http://www.bayswater-shortlettings.co.uk/ which since only two days later is not accessible any longer. What made me suspicious was a quite low rent for a pretty large and modern flat of 250£/w, a quite high deposit, a very taciturn communication strategy, as well as an surprisingly high number of grammar mistakes for someone called "John Maxwell". I am pretty sure that this is/was a scam site.

From - Sat Jan 08 15:43:13 2011
X-Account-Key: account3
X-UIDL: 0LclBi-1Q42t52XXr-00jsGT
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X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
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Received: from [217.70.183.193] (helo=relay1-d.mail.gandi.net)
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for ***; Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:39:43 +0100
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Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: ***
Reply-To: Bayswater Short Term Lettings <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
X-Origin: 92.41.251.231
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 13:39:42 +0100
Subject: Re: Princes Suite - One Bedroom Flat
From: Bayswater Short Term Lettings <[email protected]>
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***,

We rents the complete flat.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards

John Maxwell
Property Manager
http://www.bayswater-shortlettings.co.uk



>
>
>On Sat 08/01/11 12:13 , *** wrote::

>
>Thanks for the prompt reply!
>I would be interested in whether kitchen and bathroom are shared or=20
>whether it is the complete flat that is rented?
>Are there any supermarket somewhere within walking distance?
>Best regards,
>***
>
>Am 08.01.2011 00:27, schrieb Bayswater Short Term Lettings:
>> ***>>
>> Yes available.
>>
>> Please let us know if you have any further questions.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> John Maxwell
>> Property Manager
>> http://www.bayswater-shortlettings.co.uk


>>> On Fri 07/01/11 23:19 , wrote::
>>> Dear Sir or Madame,
>>> I would like to enquire whether the flat is available in March? Is
>>> kitchen and bathroom shared or is the complete flat to rent?
>>> Best regards,
>>> ***

Interestingly, the underlying IP address seems to be the same as in this thread: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10750&p=39681


The second flat I was interested in was posted on http://www.gumtree.com/london/76/70534976.html. After some emails which were not suspicious to me the story I have read here quite often was the same: I am living far away and you should use Western Union, which rang a bell. This does not necessarily need to be a scam, but still I am not adventurous enough to give it a try!

From - Mon Jan 10 19:04:01 2011
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From: sherry wink <[email protected]>
To: ***
Subject: RE: Reply to your ad: 2 Bedroom Flat to Rent in Clapton/ Stoke
Newington London
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:17:47 +0000
Importance: Normal
In-Reply-To: ***
References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>,<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>,<[email protected]>
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Hello=2Cthanks for your mail=2C i live in scotland and the flat is still av=
ailable and i have in so some situation that some will call me to tell me t=
hat they are ready to have the flat but at the end of the day they will be =
saying different stories. i wont like a situation where by that will happen=
again and as you have seen it on gumtree that the flat is well furnished. =
and i have got lot of mail about the flat. i can hold the flat for you only=
if i am sure that you really want it . and i cant tell you to make a payme=
nt direct to me. but the only suggestion i can make is that make the full p=
ayment through western union using your partner as the sender and you use y=
our name as the receiver . after that just scan to me the receipt to confir=
m that the money for the flat is ready. i can come down to London we will =
go to the flat first t before we go down to the western union to cash the =
money. that is the only way i think i can be confused enough that you are c=
oming to have it and i will reserve it for you.if that is ok by you=2C you =
can send to me your full details so that i can send it to my lawyer to prep=
are your tenancy agreement. thanks i await your reply

Thanks to all of you who have posted their experiences! I suspect that this has made me much more aware of the problem and saved me a lot of money and trouble!

Welcome! I'm glad that you have been doing your research to avoid being scammed.

I believe the bayswater site was reported by our fake site killers and taken down.

The second email you posted is 100% scam. I don't even need to look for a location to tell you that the email was written by an African--the standard mistakes and phrasing are very obvious.

It's very annoying Traveller, but often the only way we get started on killing fake apartment rental sites is after someone's lost money, but I may have found a way to find them before they get started.

I need to check out my theory, but if it works, it'll make the fake websites they use more of a liability to them than an asset. They go to a lot of trouble to make them 'stealthy' but it's still possible to find them.