- Victim had lost nearly all of her savings
- National Fraud recovered all of her money
- Law firm says students are targeted by rental scammers
We recovered £4,000 for a Portsmouth student who had fallen victim to a fake landlord rental scam.
The 29-year-old, who was studying a masters degree in international business, responded to an advert for a flat in May, this year, on house sharing app.
The fake landlord sent her a signed tenancy agreement and asked her to pay a security deposit of £250 before viewing the flat because of high demand and to make sure she wasn’t a timewaster.
She paid the deposit, despite misgivings, after the landlord told her he was a member of the National Landlord Association (NLA).
But over the next nine days, the fraudster conned the student out of £3,809 in further payments, for rent up front, bills and fees, without ever letting her view the apartment.
She realised it was a scam when an email contact the landlord had given her for someone at the NLA looked suspicious.
“The landlord messaged in the same way, at the same time of day, and I realised the person messaging me from the NLA was the same man,” said the 26-year-old, who works in the care sector. “So I stopped paying and asked for a refund.
“I was very stressed, because this was a difficult situation. I lost so much money, most of my savings.”
When the scam victim went into her local branch of Lloyds Bank, they told her there was nothing they could do because she had willingly made the payments.
But thanks to solicitors from National Fraud Helpline, she has now received a full refund from the bank, which has a duty of care to protect customers from fraud.
Martin Richardsom, senior partner at National Fraud Helpline, said: “Rental fraud is a huge problem. The fraudsters play on people’s anxiety about needing to find accommodation.
“Whenever there is desperation scammers take advantage. Rental scammers seem to target students.
“Our advice is never to pay any money upfront until you have viewed the property and to carry out a simple Land Registry check of who owns the property which only costs £3.
“We are delighted to have recovered all of our client’s money for her.”
Speaking about getting her money back the student said: “I was very happy because I was not expecting it. I was hoping every day, but I didn’t think it would happen.”
“I just want to alert other students to the stressful situation I faced. Never, ever pay any money to someone who says you have to pay before you view a property.”
The student was lured into handing over most of her savings on the promise of getting all of her money back if she didn’t like the apartment.
The criminal, who even sent her photo ID to prove he was genuine, made up numerous excuses for her not being able to view the flat.
When he asked her to pay a month’s rent up front, she said she “felt so awkward”.
“But what else could I do?” she added. “He said he would pay it back, there was no need to worry because he was with the NLA, and he already had my money.
“The next day, I was in the area and waiting to view the flat and he said he was coming. But then he said there was a document missing and I also needed to pay some bills up front, like the TV licence and a maintenance fee.
“He said if I don’t pay then I won’t be entitled to a refund, and if I paid late I would pay a fine. I was very scared because my bank account was going to be almost empty. He was putting a lot of pressure on me.”
We placed the story in the media as a warning to other potential student scam rental victims: “I lost most of my savings” – Portsmouth student scammed out of £3,809 by deceitful fake landlord
Read more on How To Avoid Rent Scams.
Have you fallen victim to a rent scam? Whatever scam you may have suffered we are here to help. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.