Scam using Daft.ie details

MOH

Got a scam email over the weekend that was a lot more convincing than the usual dreck.

I've applied to view a number of places for rent on Daft.ie recently, many of them by email.

Got a fairly long winded reply from a landlord thanking me for my interest in the apartment they had for rent, explaining that they were UK based and no longer using the apartment, were renting it out long term etc etc.
Asking for more general details about myself, nothing particularly personal.
Included a fowarded email they'd received from Daft.ie, with a link to the original ad, which looked pretty similar to any mails I've got from daft. It was all well written, no obvious typos or jarring language.

Whole thing looked fairly legitimate at first glance (especially reading it on my phone first thing Saturday morning!) but looking at it again later there were a few odd things in the mail. The most obvious was that it was way too good a deal for the location. I also had no memory of applying for this particular place, although I did fire off a few mails last week so wasn't impossible.

The other thing that stood out was a fairly needless explanation that the 'landlord' wouldn't be able to travel over from the UK due to business commitments. Presumably if I had replied at some point they would have looked for a bank transfer to secure the property, with some excuse about how the agent for the viewing had fallen through or something. Also, the linked ad from Daft was hosted on Daft15.com, not Daft.ie. There were a few other giveaways that the forwarded mail wasn't genuine.

I was a bit concerned as to how my email been targeted, unless it was a coincidence, and worried how he got my address from Daft. Then I realised all the guy had to do was set up a fake ad on Daft, invite people to apply by email, and after collecting enough email addresses try to scam them. Forwarded the whole thing on to Daft who confirmed it was either a phishing attempt or a scam.


As always, if it look to good to be true, it is.

slimjimmc

Thanks. I'll move this to Accommodation & Property for the property hunters there.

Michael D Not Higgins

Pretty common scam actually. They try to get you to send them a deposit with the promise of keys in return without even viewing the place.

For anyone out there who has never seen this kind of thing before, never send money until you've seen the place and signed a lease and are handed keys physically.

xxtippchickxx

there really are some chancers,thanks for the warning

geo88

Got one of these as well just a couple of minutes ago.

What's the best way to help catch these people? I'm obviously no idiot to send them any money (except 1e to trace a bank wire if they accept transfer through that method), but I could certainly play along for a bit to waste their time.

Reporting to Daft won't be incredibly useful, unless they do aggregate correlations of all the people that report these scams and look though the history of ads they applied to find the common one (as I'm 100% confident that's how they got my details) and then... ban by IP?

Any ideas? Any point reporting this to Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation?

xzanti

Pretty sure I've been contacted by these people today. Same story, replied to a few Daft ads, but don't recall this particular property.

Emailed me today with photos of this beautiful apartment, great rent rate, gas/bins etc included in rent. Too good to be true generally.

An older couple who are now based in the UK on some 'Senior Service' mission for the Red Cross. I googled it and couldn't find any such mission.

Shysters!!!! :mad:

Tuesday_Girl

This has been covered on various radio shows and newspapers in the past week, same story each time of a UK couple renting out a place in Dublin, not able to be there for the viewing, etc.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/it-seemed-too-good-to-be-true-ucd-student-tells-of-4400-accommodation-scam-34846482.html

Sad Professor

With the way the market is at the moment, just the idea of a landlord pursuing a tenant for the occupancy of their property should immediately give this away as a scam.

Kinda like those spam Revenue emails. "We just noticed that WE owe you money". Yeah right.

firestarter51

this scam has been around for years, joe duffy was on about it a long time ago
next step is bank transfer for below market value and you meet for the keys

Kristopherus

Joe Duffy had an item about it last week.

4ensic15

It can be easy to get an email address for a prospective tenant. Advertise a genuine sounding property. get in loads of emails enquiring about it. Google the names and try to find the email addresses of the prospective tenants.
Buyer Beware!

Paulw

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/joe-duffy-saves-the-day-broadcaster-exposes-dublin-rent-scam-live-on-air-34859909.html

foggy_lad

Paulw wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/joe-duffy-saves-the-day-broadcaster-exposes-dublin-rent-scam-live-on-air-34859909.html

Sure Joe was talking to yer man yesterday on the phone! he didn't know any bus routes in stoney batter and the Bauld Joe mentioned the dart station in Blanchardstown and Oxmanstown lol


It is the same scam as those claiming to want to buy a car for "my son who is going to your Trinity college in September" or who wants goods shipped to some other country when it would be far cheaper and easier to source the goods in that country!

firestarter51

<mod snip - No it's not a good idea!>

A step by step guide to scamming
Is that a good idea lol

MrDerp

firestarter51 wrote: »

A step by step guide to scamming
Is that a good idea lol

Maybe not

Meant in the spirit of demonstrating how easy it is to do a 'man in the middle' scam to make something 'seem legit', and highlight the importance of doing all of your checks and balances before handing over cash.

firestarter51

MrDerp wrote: »

Maybe not

Meant in the spirit of demonstrating how easy it is to do a 'man in the middle' scam to make something 'seem legit', and highlight the importance of doing all of your checks and balances before handing over cash.

Yes it's quite easy
How people fall for these scams I will never know

SB_Part2

firestarter51 wrote: »

Yes it's quite easy
How people fall for these scams I will never know

These could be people who are first time renters and aren't sure of the procedure.

I know an elderly friend of my dad's was caught out with something like this before and it was heartbreaking.

MOH

firestarter51 wrote: »

Yes it's quite easy
How people fall for these scams I will never know

Really? It's quite simple.

When people are desperate they'll take chances they normally wouldn't.
Rental market in Dublin was a nightmare last time I was looking, and that was over a year ago. I imagine it's worse now.
If I was a student looking to rent for the first time, and trying to find something in the right price bracket, I'd be even more desperate, and possibly more naive.

You'll be amazed to know that people fall for much more obvious scams all the time.
Someone's gone to the trouble of cloning a trusted website, and baiting people via another trusted website.
It's not just an email saying "give me all your bank details and I'll send you a gazillion quid".

firestarter51

MOH wrote: »

Really? It's quite simple.

When people are desperate they'll take chances they normally wouldn't.
Rental market in Dublin was a nightmare last time I was looking, and that was over a year ago. I imagine it's worse now.
If I was a student looking to rent for the first time, and trying to find something in the right price bracket, I'd be even more desperate, and possibly more naive.

You'll be amazed to know that people fall for much more obvious scams all the time.
Someone's gone to the trouble of cloning a trusted website, and baiting people via another trusted website.
It's not just an email saying "give me all your bank details and I'll send you a gazillion quid".

Who is renting a property and paying for it without even checking it out, meeting the landlord etc
These scams are always too good to be true, with below market value rent and always some crap about being in the uk or France and the money needs to be paid via western union
Then collect the keys from mr X at the property
It's been on the radio numerous times

MOH

firestarter51 wrote: »

Who is renting a property and paying for it without even checking it out, meeting the landlord etc

As I said, people who are desperate to find somewhere to live.

There's one crowd who advertise on Daft regularly (or used to) where that's actually their business model. They've mainly targeted at students coming from abroad. I started a thread on them last year, general consensus was they might be a legit business but you'd be mad to go with them.
Even meeting the landlord at the property isn't enough - there's been cases where scammers somehow got access to a place that wasn't there, met tenants there, and took a deposit in exchange for keys which it turned out didn't fit.

These scams are always too good to be true, with below market value rent and always some crap about being in the uk or France and the money needs to be paid via western union
Then collect the keys from mr X at the property
It's been on the radio numerous times

I'd imagine quite a lot of the students trying to find property in Dublin for the first time wouldn't have even heard of Joe Duffy, let alone listened to him.