Bourne & Tullet Estate Agents - ELABORATE SCAM!

k1980 · Joined: 05 Feb 2009 Posts: 3

Hi!

I asked if anyone new of the estate agents Bourne & Tullet yesterday. No one had so I did a little investigating. This is a very elaborate scam, so beware.

It all appears very legit. You will see an ordinary ad on gumtree for a property with a mobile phone number to contact with name. You will even have an arranged viewing at the said property, meet 'current tenants' etc. Although the 'estate agents' may not turn up for the viewing.

I turned up to see Church Walk, currently advertised on Gumtree - but there were no agents there. I knocked - no answer and so I called the 'agents'. They told me they must have somehow missed me off their list as the viewings had been cancelled that evening and apologised for their mistake. They told me that they would see if they could get hold the 'tenants', who, if in could show me around. The 'tenants' were in and showed me around a pretty nice flat. So far so good.

I contacted the 'agents' after the viewing and said I'd like to take the flat, but wanted my boyfriend to see it before we signed anything. Trying to arrange for him to see it proved impossible and we were told that unless we put a deposit down, we would loose the flat. I said that was fine and the 'agents' wanted me to meet me in Islington for me to hand over the deposit. A bit strange! I told them I couldn't do this until the weekend and would prefer to go their office and see a contract - and could they email this through to me.

They eventually emailed me a contract - so I finally managed to get an address for their office. This turned out to be at Finchley House Business Centre. I called up the centre and they told me that many people were looking for so-called 'Bourne & Tullet' Estates as they had run off with people's deposits, taken 'rent' and so on.

This is a very convincing scam to con people out of their money. These people pose as estate agents, even rent an office space and have people pose as tenants. They go to a lot of trouble to be extremely convincing.

Be careful!

Be wary of anyone called:

Chris Sevas tel 07853693113

email bbt1@hotmail.com

Natala or Caren tel no's 07943274683 or 07950574009 or 07853751637

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5644

If you haven't yet reported the ad to Gumtree admin, please do so via the button to the right of the ad and include the link to your message to explain the background.

thanks for communicating the problem.

k1980 · Joined: 05 Feb 2009 Posts: 3

Also beware of their parent company High Yield Properties Ltd. This is a registered company, but is not for real when it comes to lettings!

lin30 · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

paid money to bourne and tullett - but moved into a flat above the one i paid for ! apprently the orginal flat i reserved was taken off the market by thev landlord ! although the flat was smaller than the one i wanted it is nicer , so we are staying -!

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5644

Hellen adams · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

Its just a joke now adays you cant trust any of them and another one to watch out for is CITY LIVING THEY ARE NOT REGISTERED AGENTS THE WEBSITE IS WWW.YOURCITYLIVING.CO.UK .... COMPLETE SCAM ARTIST!! THEY HAVE A FEW OFFICES ONE IN ISLINGTON AND ONE IN HACKNEY I THINK!! THEY SCAMMED A MATE OF MINE OUT OF HIS MONEY AND ITS JUST BEEN A NIGHTMARE FOR HIM CAUSE HE PAID A LOT IN CASH AND REALLY TRUSTED THEM... YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!

AVOID AT ALL COST!!

DONT PAY ANYTHING IN CASH INSIST ON PAYING OTHER WAYS LIKE CHEQUE AND MAKE SURE EVERYTHING THEY TELL YOU IS IN WRITING AND NOT JUST VERBAL!

trupal · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 2 Location: London

What about Red Dot Properties - anyone heard of them? They have a website but not, it seems any physical address, and only one agent - the director.

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5644

http://www.hotels-list.org/detail/139/red-dot-properties.html

No idea.

polly1500 · Joined: 25 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

Unfortunately, I was one of the unlucky ones and got scammed by theses b*****.
I have taken him and the original ‘landlord to court and have reported it to the police. The police can’t seem to do anything about it. Has anyone managed to get their money back?

What else can I do to get mine back?

Setanta730 · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 1

Unfortunately I too have had the dis pleasure of being scammed by these arse holes. They acted under the guise of Bishop and Tokyo with a web address which has been taken down during this week of www.bishop-and-tokyo.co.uk

The whois searh report is below also

Domain name: bishop-and-tokyo.co.uk Registrant: bishop-and-tokyo
Registrant type: UK Limited Company, (Company number: 6665004) Registrant's address: 143 holloway road london N7 8LX GB Registrar:
GX Networks Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG] URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk Relevant dates: Registered on: 27-Feb-2009
Renewal date: 27-Feb-2011 Registration status: Registered until renewal date. Name servers: ns.123-reg.co.uk ns2.123-reg.co.uk
WHOIS lookup made at 19:21:25 07-Apr-2009

And the registered conpany number which the web was registered too is below.

Name & Registered Office:
HIGHYIELD PROPERTIES LIMITED
44 UPPER BELGRAVE ROAD
CLIFTON
BRISTOL
BS8 2XN
Company No. 06665004

They were still taken calls today on a land line number of 02083439298.

I intend to take all the information on this page to the police but not too sure what they can do to help recruit our money or bring these people to justice.

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5644

If you google the address "143 holloway road", the results indicate a mobile phone and furniture shop at that location. Given this, I would not be surprised if the domain name information supplied for the website contact details - the association with High Yield Properties - are similarly fake.

The Bristol address that is provided on the website registration leads to a building that contains dozens of businesses, including one that specialises in forming limited companies, including a number they have already purchased ready to transfer to new companies.

https://www.hanovercompanyservices.com/order.asp

Typically, this type of completely legitimate company will have already registered a number of limited companies ready to transfer to someone wanting to establish a limited company. This means it is likely that the 'High Yield' company cited could well be a dormant and completely legitimate company that was registered by another completely legitimate business which the scammer has merely used to try and legitimise their scam. It's very common for scammers to clone websites and steal other companies details so they sound authentic and may even pass some basic screening checks.

https://www.hanovercompanyservices.com/order.asp?co=Highyield+Properties+Limited&vc=Ready+Made+Company

Looks like the ISP has taken down that website which may have morphed into the third fake letting agent company that the scammers may have used in the Finchley and Holloway area - Bourne & Tullet, Bourne & Tokyo, Bishop & Tokyo.

All that remains is some cached contact information on a google search - the email used - btt1@hotmail.co.uk, phone 0208-343-9298 and fax 0208-343-9298. That email address is associated with 07784856645. If you google that mobile phone number it unearths other property adverts on free internet sites that have been taken down.

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5644

Here's a related post

http://forums.gumtree.com/about268126.html

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5644

The following thread shows that the scammers are still very active, this time trying to secure a property from a landlord, operating loosely with the following constantly changing company names, addresses and contact numbers.

"bourne and tullet
bourne and tokyo
bishop and tokyo
and some address are
1 allum road.london,n20
143 holloway road
and chris phone no. is 07853693113
natalia 07846578333, sometimes she is called natala
theres another lady called caren but i didnt deal with her and here is the other no. they use 07943274683 or 07950574009 or 07853751637 "

http://forums.gumtree.com/viewtopic.php?t=333086

aiwlys16 · Joined: 20 Feb 2009 Posts: 3

I've had enough of them in february this year... !! They are no one to start with ...! i've lost 200 Pounds and then doing a little investigation I've heard so many stories about them (even about making 'deals' and cheating on small local property agencies) that i decided not to go any further... they seem to be dangerous people! I went to the Police and they wont do (can't do) anything about it!! can you imagine!!??
So please be aware!! They're still changing their names on any kind of blehbleh & Tullet , blehbleh & Tokyo etc.
don't make any kind of deals with them!!