Potential property scam

paperfriend

<font face="Arial, Verdana"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;">Just wanted to make you all aware of a well-known scam involving Western Union which is used to dupe prospective private rental tenants out of their hard-earned.</span></font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">I enquired via Gumtree about a flat on Finsbury Park Road. A man giving the name 'Michael Bearo' replied claiming to be the landlord of the property and currently living in Denmark. </div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">He was apparently happy to fly to the UK to complete a viewing this weekend but, to give him some reassurance that I wasn't wasting his time, wanted me to prove I had the funds to put down a deposit/first month's rent in advance.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Not too unusual, although rather than asking to see a bank statement or something normal, he wanted me to transfer some money to my partner via Western Union. This would apparently prove that I had the funds to rent the flat. A quick Google of 'Western Union property scam' returned this:</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana"><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: normal;">http://www.westernunion.co.uk/static/pdf/gb/press/Western Union combats online rental scams FINAL.pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font face="Arial, Verdana"><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana"><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: normal;">After I challenged him the emails ran dry and the ad has already been taken down. I've contacted Gumtree but, unregulated as it is, the ads will probably continue to appear.</span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana"><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana"><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: normal;">I'm sure many of you have heard of this, but thought it should be known that some unscrupulous folk are trying it on the kind residents of SG.</span></font></div>