London Hyde Park Lets - SCAM!!!!!!

Dear All,

please be aware this are SCAM: London Hyde Park Holiday Lets
http://www.london-hydeparklets.co.uk/

I fall for it. The website looks professional. But the phone doesnt work. They gave me their uk mobile, Uk account number. I have transfred deposit and only then realised its a scam. I have reported them to police, but the website is still on. So please be aware!!!!
Always check that they have UK landline office number and address, make someone cheak that the place acctually exist. Don't transfer any money via bank transfers, its a scam!!!!!!

For moderators: the emails IP 78.129.197.45

Here below their emails to me (people have posted here similar ones, I have found it too late):


>> Dear Sir,

Your Booking Reference: 1050156966
To proceed with the booking of the apartment.
Please click the following link to complete the apartment arrival form:

http://www.london-hydeparklets.co.uk/#/ ... 4545109494>
Below is the information to make the deposit of £494 plus £30 taxi fare.


>> ACCOUNT NAME: L. H. Lettings

>> SORT CODE: 07-02-46

>> ACCOUNT NUMBER: 13265766

>> BANK NAME: Nationwide Bank

>> Paayment Reference: 1050156966



>> We accept bank transfer only, If you are making a cash deposit through bank in UK inform us before you pay into the account.

You will receive a copy of the booking confirmation and how to receive the keys once we have received your deposit and confirm your booking.


>> Best regards

>> Vincent & Adrian Cunningham (Owner)

>> Web: http://www.london-hydeparklets.co.uk


XXXX,

Balance due is £326.

Below is the details to make the payment.

ACCOUNT NAME: V. P. Solutions Ltd
SORT CODE: 206582
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 43708519
PAYMENT REFERENCE: 1050156966 (VERY IMPORTANT)
BANK NAME: Barclays Bank


Best regards

Vincent & Adrian Cunningham (Owner)
Web: http://www.london-hydeparklets.co.uk

Hello yuli30 and welcome to Scamwarners.

I'm sorry to hear about you losing money to this scam group.

We've been tracking this group for a long time and know that they are an organised gang.

I can give you details, which I'll add to this thread later, of who you MUST report this crime to in the UK.

You MUST also pass on details of the bank account. It's clearly a fraudulent account using a very well tried wheeze to make a personal name appear to be that of a company and no bank should allow this to happen. As a retired bnk employee this irritates me massively to see this happen. Following basic standard ID procedures will stop this happening and it's a UK legal obligation on banks.

If the police can trace this gang down it will be a major success for them and to prove the point, take a look at this website.

http://www.bayswater-vacationlets.co.uk/

.... another scam website.

The bank should (it's a legal obligation) have ID and will have photos from their security cameras at the very least, and if the police can be informed that this is a major scam group, there's hope that they'll make the extra effort needed to track down this group.

We can hope. Do you have a paper copy of the payment details from your bank, not for us, but that you can show to the police ?

I'll assist you in any way I can and others on the forum will too, naturally.

There's no harm in reporting the scam here

http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/

The point being that you have details of a bank account which appears to have been set up fraudulently to assist in carrying out fraud that will provide a link to the real identities of the people behind this scam, and we know that this is a major group of rental scammers based in, and operating within the UK, otherwise they wouldn't be using bank accounts here.

Many times a victim loses money, not much can be done, but you have bank account details and we know that this will lead to a major group of scammers.

I hadn't noticed the second bank account, which is a surprise and I'll check that out.

I'm sure the scammers visit here regularly to see how they're doing and I can confirm that their photo will be on the banks security cameras in glorious colour, which is a fatal mistake.

If they had a Merry Christmas, they have a good chance of an unhappy New Year.

I've found something interesting on the second set of bank details you posted.

I'm not sure what it means, but I'm going to have fun working it all out.

Along with the personal account you first quoted this information could prove very helpful in locating who is behind this scam.

I googled the second set of bank details on the off chance it might throw up something, but without much hope but to my surprise I got this

http://cactuscms.5dpdev.net/en-gb/Guest-Areas/About-Cactus/How-to-Load-it/Internet-Banking/

When you choose Make a Payment on your online banking site you will be asked whether you want to Pay an existing Payee or Add a New Recipient. Click Add a New Recipient.
You will then be asked if you want to Pay a Bill or Pay Another Person. Select Pay Another Person.
When you set up a new recipient, you will be asked for the name. In the Pay to box, enter Cactus.
Then, enter the following numbers into the three Sort Code boxes: 206582 .
Our Account Number is: 43708519

The Reference should be your Cactus Card number. This is the 10 digit number on the front of your card - DO NOT enter the number of the card in the example below.

Then click Add Recipient (or Add And Make Payment) and you're ready to load up. Just follow the site's instructions from that point on.

Now, the company behind this appear to be properly authorised, but this provides a second separate lead to the identity of this gang who are not only scamming people lookin for flat rentals, but they are also performing identity fraud and scams utilising the UK banking system.

What they refer to as the booking reference would appear to be their unique Cactus ten digit identity.

I would suggest that you mention to the police that it might be useful if they froze access to funds on that card. Of course, the card itself will provide a useful record of payments received and paid out.

I'll dig a little deeper as this is a new and novel method of receiving money I've never seen before and not something the average scammer would dream up, and I love investigating mysteries.

I'll be back.

If you Google the booking confirmation reference (which is actually the scammer's Cactus card number) you will get evidence that he's been using this method to receive stolen funds for a while.

Mysteriously he has used other banks as well to channel funds, which I'll try to figure out, but my brain's hurting a little. I think figuring this out will help to establish what and how the scammer has been operating and, in view of the significance, this might be a rare opportunity for me to independently alert the authorities. There's good online evidence of the scammer's operations and method of channeling funds and I can hand details of accounts and methods used to the authorities.

After chasing so many leads that have led nowhere this is an example of a scammer pushing too far. This is not the work of the average 419 scammer working out of an internet cafe, as this requires too much knowledge of the banking system. Unfortunately he doesn't know enough.

Wish me luck.

For those who haven't a clue what I've been talking about I'll explain simply.

A company called Vincento Payment Solutions Limited (authorised and regulated by the FSA) run a pre-paid card payment system which goes by the name of 'Cactus'. People can use the card to make online and store payments after topping it up online by making payments to the company account, wherever it happens to be, which is why the scammer uses a company name similar to the payment provider to enable it to go through normal banking channels. The important point being that each payment must bear the scammer's card number which the scammer calls his 'booking reference.

Considering current money laundering and anti-terrorist legislation I'm quite startled at how easily this scammer has managed to avoid the whole lot.

Go ahead and make your report yuli30 as a victim's account always carries more weight. Hopefully the authorities can put our two reports together and start nabbing some felons.

WOW !

And you have manged to do this all by yourself using just Google!
I am impressed by you and absolutely dismayed by the police!!!!!!!!!!

The first thing I have done was to report this scam (including all bank details) to the ActionFraud. I also have to thank this site, because thats how I realised it was a scam ( seeing similar emails from other people). I am however appalled that this website is still on!! I dont understand why police doesnt take it down. I have seen on ActionFraud message that there were around 4000 complains!!! Why havent these people were not caught yet, or at least all their websites and bank accounts shut down? Is it so difficult to do, for god sake?

I was lucky to find out before I found myself in the middle of the night at the airport, with nowhere to go. What about people that will find themselves in that situation???

I have tonns of emails from them. Two bank accounts which I posted here. I will of course have a reference from my bank on transaction. I am coming to the Uk in 2 weeks and I certainly intend to take it further and will assit you in whatever I can to take this bloody website off the internet.

y.

We have something called 'Michael' (someone actually) and he'll get it taken down along with all its crummy doppelgangers.

I have a black belt in Google , and you'd be truly amazed if I told you all I had discovered but some things I can't divulge or it might assist the scammer. We always knew this was a large scale fraud, and with the leads we have now, we should be able to discover just how big it is. Nothing will grab the police's interest more than the opportunity to make a newspaper worthy scam busting operation, and we're always delighted to help them when we can.

I'll certainly pass on all I have to the police, though I haven't finished yet and I should be able to take out the fraudsters account quite quickly.

This type of fraud is all too common and this group have turned it into a business. I have suspicions that it may be more widespread than we know, in which case it could lead to an international operation, but sometimes I get excited and need to collect information and evidence first.

Now it's known how the scammer's account functions that can be blocked quite quickly.

We also have a link to the authorities who might be particularly interested in this case as we have so much detailed information.

Well, sounds like you know what you are doing!
I am glad you are on the case!

After submitting my case to actionfraud, and not hearing anything back for few days, I was quite disappointed. So I decided to post it here, so at least others will be warned. I am sure I am not the only victim and that they have scammed many more people, some of whom, may not yet be aware if it. The sooner these people are caught the better!

I also would like thank you again for this webiste . If not for you, many more peole would be victims of scam.
If you hear some more news please post it here, i would really like to know the develoments as police doesnt seem to bother (or at least they do not update me on whatever they do).

y.

All hail Gomer! Been reading this with absolute fascination.

You should see my spread sheet on this Quirked Eyebrow

I spent my whole working life in a bank and money trails tell a story that give so much more information than most people realise. It's the mistakes people make that give them away.

However we must never forget that without people coming here and reporting what's happened to them, we would know very little. That is so crucial it's impossible to stress how important it is in helping others to avoid scams and to give us the often small opportunity to get scammers to face their well deserved punishment.

We're still marshalling our chess pieces but the information we have is invaluable.

This scam is still under investigation.

Anyone with information should add it to the thread as it will be invaluable in our continuing research.