[tyom]

Hi,

I have just received replies on a couple of ads I've requested the viewing for. I can't claim my expertise on the scamming techniques but I want to share with you my observations so far.

I believe there are just a few people who post ads. They use different names so sharing their names and email addresses with the community is probably not going to make much difference as they most certainly come up with new ones for every new ad they post.

Pay attention to spelling and grammar. When someone is claiming to be a doctor or any other such profession that requires a degree, there is a good reason to believe they would know how to write. In emails I received I've noticed random capitalisation of words (e.g. "All Bills inclusive", "care of my Flat like your own" etc.). Omission of spaces between punctuation marks and words, or the opposite – extra spaces between them. (e.g. "My name is Sara ,I live in Ireland and i'm doctor.I have nobody in London" or "...private garden , square feet 705 . I can rent you...").

Unusually long emails with their private details and descriptions of how good the property is in the first reply to a simple request to view the property.

Personally, if I was going away to a different country for a long time I would make sure I find a tenant beforehand. Otherwise I would employ an agent or a trusty friend. It seems ridiculous to do business like that over emails.

They never give their phone numbers. Even if they live abroad there are cheap ways to call international numbers.

Check email headers. Check their time zone. If they are really in Greece they should be 2 hours ahead of Britain.

Any mentioning of money transfer company. In my case it was Moneybookers.com. I think they now realised that Western Union is quite an obvious give away.

As many have said already, if ad looks too good to be true it probably is. We all like a good bargain but we need to be realistic and ask ourselves why the property is so cheap if it looks so good. Surely they wouldn't have problems letting it with estate agents.

Many times images are too small. That may suggest that the photos have been taken from a site on the internet and are not available in higher resolution. Try 'reverse search' the image at http://tineye.com/ Upload the photo or point the the URL of the photo online and this service will scan the net for any photos that have the same fingerprint. The list can include derivations as well as original sources. I found photos of "flat" were taken from booking.com. Very helpful.

I hope people find this information useful and please feel free to add any other observations you may have.

Cheers,
Tyom