London citylead apartments

I just booked seemingly ideal holiday acommodation, two bed apartment, Hyde Park and at just 40 pounds a week. Was told to pay half the booking fee plus a security deposit. After a week of chasing a booking invoice, we realised, it may well be a scam and as I went to look for thier website it had disappeared from the net. Even more frustrating was when we called, they assured us, the booking invoice was on the way and their website was being updated. We paid 700 pounds for accommodation we do not have now. I want to know what recourse is open to me and can I recover the money? What action can be taken against these individuals? Any practical advice most welcome. We even went via Gumtree but it is clear, they do not vet their agents enough.
thank you

Welcome to scamwarners, arees.

How did you send the money - by WU or bank transfer? Either way, after a week, it would seem that your money is irretrievably lost,sorry to say! Also, unless you know the TRUE identity of the person, there is little recourse yourselves or law enforcement can act on.

The scammers use fake names/identities, create fake websites & are generally unidentifiable.

Can you please post the email address of who you sent the money to, plus any email detailing the property? That way, you may help someone else from being scammed.

Small comfort, I appreciate - but you might just stop the criminal from getting someone else's money!

Thank you for the sober response. It is not just unfortunate, it is injust to be duped like this and have no recourse whatsoever. Is it worth notifying the police?
The email address - [email protected]
Kind regards

My fake site radar went off - so here I am! It looks like this domain is solely used by scammers and should be closed down. Can you send me your email correspondence, along with a set of headers coming from that domain? If you are unsure how to retrieve headers, just tell us which email provider you use and we'll be happy to explain I'll try to get it closed down.

As for your question - it doesn't hurt notifying the police. The more people that report crimes like this, the bigger the issue becomes.. RIght now many people don't go to the police, which makes them underestimate the problem. It's not a priority for them at the moment. That said, the odds of you getting your money back is practically zero.