Rental fraud: the Facebook and Gumtree scam targeting desperate tenants

You’re desperately hunting for somewhere to live and scouring rental sites. The odds are stacked against you. Rents are high everywhere – in London tenants are paying almost £1,000 for a shoe cupboard with a bed – and living rooms have gone from a regular commodity to a luxury. But matters are made worse by scammers.

Young people now account for three-quarters of rental fraud, according to data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). Last year alone almost £9m was lost across about 5,000 reported cases.

Recently, the BBC reported how a family had lost £2,000 after responding to a scam advert on the listings website Gumtree – the criminals had even shown them round the property before taking the money.

Most scams take place through websites where individuals can advertise directly, and at no cost, rather than the big property websites. And, as would-be tenants turn to social media to look for rooms, so do scammers posing as individual tenants or landlords to trap unsuspecting victims.

Some, such as Spareroom, offer users advice on how to spot a scam.

What the scam looks like

There are variations, but a common version involves someone posing as a landlord and posting on dedicated Facebook rental groups, or Gumtree, offering a cheap place to rent.

Sometimes they can be studio flats, other times they’ll advertise a room in a two-, three-, sometimes four-bed flat.

Once you message them with interest, they will typically put you in touch with the current “tenant” through a mobile number.

The tenant will explain more details about the property, sometimes even accompanied by a video of a flat. However, when you ask to view the property they’ll be strangely unavailable – suddenly a parent has died, they’re abroad, or they’re just very busy. They will ask you to pay the deposit and often put pressure on you to act quickly.

What to do

• Do not pay any deposit upfront without seeing a property, no matter how desperate you are to find a home.

• Make sure you go to see any property before you commit to renting.

• Gumtree advises: “Always ask to see proof of ownership, or the landlord’s right to let, and ensure a tenancy agreement is in place before paying deposits or holding fees.”

• Stand your ground; if something seems fishy, it probably is.

• On social media, or listing websites, check when the landlord’s profile was created. How long have they been active? Do they seem to be advertising multiple properties with similar messages? What comes up when you search their name?

• If a landlord is claiming to be part of the NRLA, you can check whether their accreditation is legitimate here.

• Report fraudulent accounts to Facebook and Gumtree.