Can I trust in her?

CaptainProzac · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 2

Hi,

I've recently posted an ad on gumtree looking for a room in a flat to share.
I received an answer from a certain Jane. She offered me a room in a flat near Victoria station at £350 per month.
She has also sent to me some pictures of the flat and a picture which shows her passport. Her complete name is Louise Jane Millar ( it's written on the passport).
Her mail address is whereismyflatmate@yahoo.ca .

I'm a new user so I ask to you: can I trust in her?
Does anybody of you have already heard this name?

Please help me!!!!

Thank you.

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 4736

Follow our top tips to stay safe when looking for accommodation.

Always view properties in person. Never wire money to a 'landlord'.

http://www.gumtree.com/help/stay_safe#item73

If the 'landlady' comes up with an excuse when you try to arrange to view the room, it is invariably a scam - the absent landlord scam is a very common one. Anyone can mock up a document or send pictures of any room whose images they can copy from other sites.

CaptainProzac · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 2

First: thank you Bluey for answering so soon...

I explain my situation:

I don't live in London, so I cannot see the flat but I have some friends who live in London who can see the flat for me.
I was looking for a room just for the month of August in order to attend an english school.
If I have to book a room for August, is understandable if the landlord/lady ask me an amount of money just to book the room.

In my situation, is there any way to be sure at 100% to don't be cheated?
Does anybody have any suggestion for me?

An other question: Is it possible that a really nice flat near Victoria station costs just £350 per month?

Thank you very much!!!

Mallrats · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 11

You can find cheaper rooms in Belfast anyway.

Now, and in a few weeks student people who come from out of Belfast are begin to leave because of the summer. And I know people who are paying 100 hundred pounds a month for a room in Falls Rd (It's very cheap but real). Also people who are paying 150 all around Belfast and in the centre

There are a lot of empty rooms now in Belfast and there will be so much more in a few weeks. For example, in my house in winter time there had been living 7 people paying 180 pounds a month because we didn't know that we could find cheaper rooms, but now we know that there are several rooms empty (Houses as well) and this month there will be one person living in the house.

If you are from out of Belfast and come up here, at the first time the best way is stay in a youth hostel and take a look day by day in person to find a cheap room.

iveroa · Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 3

NO!! YOU CAN'T TRUST HER!!! well the person who sent you that wasn't even her!!! I almost get scammed by that person, I got her passport too offering me a different stayment!! "she" wanted me to make a transfer through western union... which is almost aways a fraud. The room she offered me didn't exist! How I wish to let the real Louise Jane Millar know that someone is using her identity to commit fraud... she surely wanted a flat or room and sent her passport and now some shitty people are using it to commit fraud. another scammer!! don't trust.

iveroa · Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 3

Sanne · Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 154

You'd be lucky to find a nice one bedroom flat near Victoria for under 300/week. It's definitely a scam.

machavelli · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 3 Location: London

Smells like a scam. :lol: No Landlord needs to provide details of their passport to prospective tenants. When I advertise my flat for rent I am spoilt for choice of tenants. Book into a hostel short term, there are good ones around.

gums · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 286

no you cant trust her and you deffo cant trust western union...

Cov · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 2131 Location: London

CaptainProzac ... you will learn, the one way or the other.

And no, you won't be smiling anymore.

lorent · Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 1

its really horrible
this girl offered me a room in NEW YORK !!!!!!
i am sure now it was a trap , a big trap !!!
i am from paris and i am going to NY for 4 months in ten days.
the flat was very interesting .....
i paid by western union.....
and now i see she did the same with many people
i dont know what i can do
i paid for two months ans also the deposit, and she sent me a mail because her mother is sick , and she must go in london to see her mother and she wanted that i send her 800 dollard to help her!!!
its at this time that i feel the trap
its really horrible
what i can do???????

Sanne · Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 154

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do. These people don't live in the US< UK or other countries where you might be able to get the police involved. And since the person used a false ID in your friend's name to pick up the money, it would be very difficult to find out the scammers real name in the first place.

corsu · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

[quote="lorent"]its really horrible
this girl offered me a room in NEW YORK !!!!!!
i am sure now it was a trap , a big trap !!!
i am from paris and i am going to NY for 4 months in ten days.
the flat was very interesting .....
i paid by western union.....
and now i see she did the same with many people
i dont know what i can do
i paid for two months ans also the deposit, and she sent me a mail because her mother is sick , and she must go in london to see her mother and she wanted that i send her 800 dollard to help her!!!
its at this time that i feel the trap
its really horrible
what i can do???????[/quote]

Hello every body. First of all thank you because at this time I am doing buisness with her. I never trust her but it's a good confirmation !! 3 days ago she called me by phone and forget to hide her mobile number. Now I lose it but I am sure that I can have it again. If it's the case I keep in touch with you...

nuberu · Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

she tried to scamm me to, thanks to the forum
she will send some scans information modified, If I were there I will call to the police but Im abroad

see have others emails

hot mail chat: lou.meinuk@hotmail.com
skype: louse.jane
yahoo chat: janectlouis66

Ann83 · Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 29

I'm not lucky, i havent seen this forum before however i was looking for her name in google but could find anything.

So the same happened with me in Ireland, i have paid the security deposit of 500 euros via WU, and then I paid another 1100 euros to my friends name, as a proof, but she (or he) picked up the money.

This was the first (and last) time dealing with WU. These 2 transactions cost me 80 euro, and for this money they were not able to request an iD??? the have requested one from me when i have sent the money so i thought its gonna be safe..

i went to the garda, im gonna contact WU, but im not sure ill get back anything, however i think this second transaction is not my fault it went thrugh.....

anybody who has the same problem can contact me pls

Ann

itsmeme · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 38

you won't get your money back.WU won't do anything for you.Anything to do with WESTERN UNION is always a SCAM!

Ann83 · Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 29

but then how such a company can operate??

gums · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 286

thats the way western union is and allways will be what keeps them going is scammers it must be runned by scammers or something as it all one big scam they wont do nothing and dont care about nothing just a money transaction service you should never use as its the worst of them all..

acantho · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:59 pm Post subject:

It's not W-U that are scammers, just the way the wire transfer system works - it's ideal for say someone working in another country and sending money home to their family - they don't have to pay the bank charges and the money is there almost instantly - not 3-4 days later or longer as with banks - perhaps it's partly the banking industry and their charges and delays that allow the scammers to flourish and use these alternative systems.

People will always find some way of ripping people off no matter how good the intention of the system set up for normal honest people - loopholes are easy to find but can be difficult to close without hurting the people the otiginal scheme etc was set up to help!

Cov · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 2131 Location: London

These are some interesting examples about Western Union used for scams - WORLD WIDE

Western Union Scam Example 1

Western Union Scam Example 2

Western Union Scam Example 3

Western Union Scam Example 4

Western Union Scam Example 5

Just put Western Union into a search machine like google, and you will be drown in real life examples.

Ann83 · Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 29

This WU is even worst than I thought.

I have just sent them a beautiful and very long letter about the scam that happened to me. I saw their answer in my mail box so was really curious. As I'm using a French email address they emailed me back to contact WU in France. I'm not French, the scam happened to me in Ireland, they haven't even read my letter, I can't believe it!!!!!

I'm gonna fight, cause people are not aware of that. I mean I have never really heard any bad stories about them until searching on the internet.

I have sent my story to a newspaper as well.

Please, contact me if you have such a story, I just don't think I could do anything on my own.

Thanks

kmasuga · Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 2

Dear everyone on this thread,

I am sorry to hear about those of you who have been victimized by either identity or financial theft. I am Katy Masuga, and my identity has been stolen by this ring of apartment scams.

I was not financially victimized by it, but my identity has been stolen. This happened because I sent a digital copy of my passport as "proof," etc. when I was interested in renting a flat in Paris in the summer of 2007, and, along with the identities of others, has been subsequently used to further victimize others. Luckily, I discovered it was a scam before I sent any money (various clues such as the emails being incredibly poorly written, the addresses and phone numbers being false, and then ultimately I located some one's blog where he had explained how he had been scammed as well).

So, if you sent your passport to this identity and financial fraud ring, your identity is probably being used in this way too (whether or not you also sent money).

I have reported this to the Federal Trade Commission's "Identity Theft" website, as well as to the Internet Crime Complaint Center which works with the FBI. I advise you to do the same.

Unfortunately, not a lot can be done otherwise, but I wish you all the best. I suppose what we can do is make sure that others do not fall for this scam as well by informing as many people as we can when and where possible.

Here are the names and numbers that were used on me when my identity was stolen:

Iorna Clarke (also goes by Magalie Bertholie and Berth): talkaboutlorna@yahoo.co.uk
Victoria Grace: victoriamiss90@yahoo.com
Alexandra Martine: alex_88_001@yahoo.com, +33140747327, +447024027211
Peggy Flatmate (also known as Anna Williams): peggyflatmate@gmail.com

Good luck to everyone and best wishes,
Katy

acantho · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject:

Hello !

I'm your local Western Union rep, do you have a problem ?

Cov · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 2131 Location: London

Hello dear Gumtree visitor !

We are the group behind gumtree and due to the very bad experiences we do not like our visitors to use Western Union at all, as this service is being used in 89.47% for fraudulent purposes.

We know that we have neglected the safety of our users in the past, but we repent now and promise to indicate awareness wherever possible because we know now that a high number of people using our website are still not fully aware about how bad the situation really is.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter and please accept our apology to bring you together with scammers who are able to steal money from you, but hopefully our new reminder in EVERY SINGLE posting will prevent new scams from happening.

Together we can combat these wankers !

montyzuma · Community Moderator Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 2202

first let me tell you that

New double act

Acantho and Cov
a song, a smile and a fake invoice