[Oddsocks]

Hi all,

Am about to put down a cash deposit on a room in a house tomorrow (well, today now - been up all night worrying about this!), and was a bit concerned it might be a scam. Has anyone ever heard of, or had any bad dealings with, the following email addresses?:

collalti@gmail.com
Defn@hotmail.co.uk
justin.lope@gmail.com
alessandra.busignani@alice.it

?? Any information would be GREATLY appreciated - please help if you can!

[montyzuma]

have you googled them

have you seen the place?

[montyzuma]

googling it says its a room share????

have yo phone the other mobile nos?

[Oddsocks]

Hey - I've seen the place and loved it, and I googled all their details even telephone numbers and full names - the main girl has got a facebook, myspace, etc seems very genuine - but under one or more of their email addresses each time, there's about 8 ads up for flats in London all in different areas - I don't understand. Plus I texted her yesterday with a few questions about contracts and paying the rent, she didn't get back to me, now I tried to call her and her phones off. I was supposed to be going round at 11 but won't be moving from this couch till I hear from her!

[montyzuma]

why not go round?

make sure someone is with you and you dont have the money on you.

read about the person who was attacked after going for a gummie car

[Oddsocks]

Asked her for the number for the landlady and this is the text response I got:

"I call her and she asked me to don't give you her number cause she doesn't want to get involved and be bothered. She just want to have contacts with me. But she understand you and she's gonna call you but if you'll need to speak to a landlady that's me. I hope that everything is clear for you. My intentions are the better. For everything else, please call me whenever you want. See you tomorrow! Don't worry."

Firstly, she is just a tenant not a landlady and although she is the main representative for the house as she says the landlady doesn't want the bother of dealing with deposits, tenants, contracts etc, she is not the landlady. The proposed plan is for us to have a contract between ourselves. Which basically wouldn't even stand up in court. The deposit is supposed to be in a chain so I give it to the person who is leaving, then the person who replaces me when I move out gives me theirs which reimburses me. Again, not the usual way to do things.

Why would the landlady not want me having her number? If she cared about her house then why would she not want to reassure me after the girl told her of my concerns? (we had a phone conversation about half an hour ago).

And we were meant to be meeting today, not tomorrow. So I don't understand what's happened there.

And the english is terrible in the text, much worse than it was in the advert which makes me think two different people wrote them both.

AS I WAS WRITING THIS, she called me back again with the current room occupier shouting in the background asking for the deposit and she says she needs it today, then the landlady called me with kids screaming in the background and hung up, then when I tried to call back the line is dead.

Can't help but think this is a scam though the girl has always seems genuine and was nearly in tears on the phone now when I said I don't think I'll be going through with this.

HELP! What do I do?

[montyzuma]

if it was me i wouldnt touch it with a barge pole

supposing it isnt a scam

the outgoing tenant needs to find a new tenant to get their deposit back????

no way!

walk away and find something else sounds well dodgy plus yoyu are sharing a room with someone you dont know???

try flatmateclick spareroom or easyroommate as well as gumtree

[Oddsocks]

Hmmm. I think I've figured it out now. Just spoke to the landlady properly, she was a bit of a rude-girl East Londoner, didn't seem to really care about the house, and said it was all the girls responsibility to sort these things out and she just wants to pay her mortgage. Charming.

So I've got it sussed - it's not a scam, it's just an almighty great big mess. The landlady has taken advantage of the fact that the girl is young and Italian and left her to deal with everything, though of course not being from England she doesn't know the normal way to do these things. The girl is stuck in this situation with the guy who precedes me wanting his money back, and her not wanting to give it to him herself because he's been difficult to live with, from what I can gather. So she's been naieve and silly in the way she's taken responsibility for the house without knowing what she is doing and now wants me to bail her out. No thanks. I do feel for the girl as she's far from home and just wants somewhere nice to live, she called me and apologised over and over again and I felt for her, but I won't be getting involved, I've really got bigger problems to deal with!!

The reason I don't think its a scam is because a scammer with any sense wouldn't have kept it going for this long, they would have moved on by now, plus there's nothing on the web about her, her Facebook profile checks out well and tallies with everything she's told me, scammers don't have social networking sites, and she's made a huge effort in trying to resolve the whole thing with me.

He even called me and apologised for the shouting and the telephone conversation where he was swearing! And said 'I swear Sam I am not a criminal - I just want my money back' I think they are genuine, just very naieve and disorganised and I don't want to live in a house like that thanks. Think I'll keep couch surfing till I find somewhere else!

Thanks for all your help, really appreciate it.

Aaaaaand... the house search once again commences. Joy.

[montyzuma]

glad you got it sorted out in your head
sounds like a nightmare place to live

you are well out of it

best of luck with the search
try some of those places i mentioned