wefindanyhome

Hey folks,

I have been looking in various places for a private rented house for my family and me. This has included Gumtree.

I have noticed however, certain adds that really concern me. I have reported several to Gumtree who have done nothing to address these.


The adds state the following....

DSS, Benefits, Housing Benefit - 1 or 2 bed, studios, flats, or houses.
Are you struggling to find the right property with the appropriate landlord ?
We Find Any Home offer a friendly efficient service in finding your new home no matter what your circumstances.
Because our database is one of the largest in the UK there will always be plenty of options for your accommodation requirements.
For a quick informative solution call now to register, without any of the usual hidden charges.

Call Now On 0913 130 0012
Lines open Monday - Friday 8am - 6pm
http://www.wefindanyhome.com

(calls may be recorded for training and quality of service purposes, all calls cost £1.53 per minute plus network extras)


The website is fake and has no contact details or links to anything but the one page. Calling this I would expect would cost a minimum of £15 for a few minutes but probably very much more.

They posted 6 pages of ads today (23/11/2011), for properties around the country, they also advertise for landlords..... http://www.gumtree.com/all/uk/wefindany ... _scope=all


I thought I would post it here and hopefully this may warn folk or maybe someone will have an idea on what to do next. I will also contact Shelter Cymru and the property ombudsman for further advice http://www.tpos.co.uk/


Waeffe

[AlanJones]

Hi Waeffe,

Thanks for posting.

The reason that GumTree have failed to do anything is that they might be satisfied that this is not a scam.

Yes the website is very basic and also has only been registered since 12/11/2011.

Yes they are taking advantage of vunerable people (ie those on DSS who might struggle to find rental properties) by having a premium rate phone number for them to call, but if they do actually come through and find a property then they've not scammed any one.

I will do some digging and see if I can find whether they actually have the properties available for rent or not.

Alan

Nice one Alan,


The thing that seems so dubious to me is that there is no other means of contact but the phone number....just alarm bells immediatly with me for this and the other ad.

[AlanJones]

You can always try and contact them via the email on Gumtree - not sure whether they will just try and push you to the premium rate number though.

As I said in response to your other post, in order to get an 09 premium rate number, the business needs to be registered with Phonepay Plus (formerly known as ICSTIS) before they can apply for a number. This is likely to deter most scammers as it involves a registration payment and I am sure that Phonepay Plus would make some effort to validate the information.

I have looked on the PhonePay Plus site and found out that it actually gives you information about the owner of the phoneline. Interestingly, for the phone number that you quoted, there is no result returned - not sure what that means

Oooh, didn't know about the phonepay thing...and no result with your search, very interesting indeed.

I did try responding to this and the other ad on gumtree, but unsuprisingly I have had no response. I will give them a call from work tomorrow to test them out. I will see what they ask me first, then cut them dead to ask where they are and such...looking forward to seeing what response I get

Will update here when more news.

I srtongly recommend against using your work resources to mess around with scammers. I know of people who have lost their job for doing such. Also using resources which can tie back to you in dealing with a scammer is not a safe practice. Please think through what you are doing carefully. It is not worth losing your job over a scammer, especially just to see what happens.

I post the last time that this guy was a scammer but it seems someone here deleted the info as they are either part of it or approve of the scam. Funny thing the scammer has taken down wefindanyhomes has been taken down. Alanjones is keen to defend the scammer.

Well I have god news he is back again . This time pretending to be a charity and hijacking Horizon Housing Assoications name as an alias.

This is the number he usses Horizon on 08456804785 (google it)

Same scam - but different angle same scam. Unlike the last time where he gave a premium number for anyone looking for DSS, this time he say people should pay £11.95 by credit card and all proceeds go to charity

His pitch on various sites

Horizon housing has flats and houses available to people on housing benefit in most areas of Birmingham.

A deposit and one months rent in advance is required.

Horizon Housing is a registered charity (no. 1142906) and is working with affiliates to provide accommodation to people on housing benefits.

Register with Horizon Housing to receive an up to date property list.

Registration fee is £11.99 (all major debit and credit cards accepted).

To register call 0845 680 4785

Lines are open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm

Everything about him is a lie - claiming to be charity to what he intends to do. People like him disgust me.

The real Horizon Housing Association should be contacted and informed that this scumbag is using their name bogusly.

I post the last time that this guy was a scammer but it seems someone here deleted the info as they are either part of it or approve of the scam. Funny thing the scammer has taken down wefindanyhomes has been taken down. Alanjones is keen to defend the scammer.

Please reconsider this comment. It is a serious allegation to insinuate that anyone on our staff is complicit in the scams. We are all volunteers, spending our own time and energy to try to help people and don't appreciate this sort of suggestion at all.

Did you misplace your other post you're referring to? Is it this one? viewtopic.php?p=75521#p75521

Just got the following:

From: Gumtree Mail [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 06 June 2012 13:49
To: Removed - CW
Subject: James Taylor replied to your ad: Beautiful Studio Flat To Let - No Bond or Deposit

For your safety, email addresses are now masked by Gumtree. Replying to this email will send your reply via Gumtree for your protection. Find out more
________________________________________
You have received a reply to your ad: Beautiful Studio Flat To Let - No Bond or Deposit
Horizon on 08456804785
From: James Taylor
Telephone: 0203 086 8099
________________________________________
Our top 3 safety tips:
• Keep things local and always meet in person
• Don't send items to strangers in the hope of receiving money back
• Beware of buyers sending fake Paypal emails saying the funds have been transferred
For more advice see our Stay Safe page.
Report this reply as suspected spam or fraud.

________________________________________
This advert was posted by an established business account on Gumtree. As a result the email address has been included in the email to allow direct contact between parties. Find out more.

This reply was sent from [email protected]

Report this reply if you suspect it is spam or fraud.

??? I'm not 100% sure that ipropertypeople.co.uk is a scam site but there are a few alarm bells.

The contact number is a portable number supplied by YAC ltd who specialise in cheap virtual offices.
The phone number has a London ID but the address given for ipropertypeople.co.uk is in Leeds.
The company registration number given on the website (07889055) returns as "Cayo Property Ltd" which is based in Lancashire and belongs to an individual.
The domain name for ipropertypeople.co.uk was only registered on 28th May
They claim to be members of "The Property Ombudsman" but there is no record in the members list.

The site ipropertypeople.co.uk needs more investigation.

Reported