Rental Scammer - [email protected]

From: "Nataly Rirver" <[email protected]>
Date:
To: Michelle Banks
Subject: Re: 4 bed House to rent in Edmonton £1600/pm

Hello Michelle
As I told you I live in Germany / Berlin. Last week I was in London to meet a tenant but he didn't came so I lost my time and money and I don't want to repeat this experience. I only want to see that you are a genuine tenant for my house. This is why I want to use DepositGuard RLA.
The service has been developed with The Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) - a government approved tenancy deposit scheme which protects both landlors and tenants.
The deposit of £ 1600 will be made to DepositGuard RLA.
The house is fully furnished and the kitchen is furnished and equipped with all necessary equipment.
After we meet and you see the house, if you like it we can sign the contract and you can move in. If you don't like it you will receive the deposit back from DepositGuard RLA.
If you really want and accept my terms I will come Friday and we can meet and rent you the house. To start the transaction I will need :
First Name :
Last Name :
Full Address:
Phone number :
I will wait your decision
Nataly

This person asks for a deposit payment via Western Union, MoneyGram, pre-paid credit card or bank transfer with a promise that you can have the keys to a property that does not belong to him.

Sounds safe. It's not!

At other times, he will ask for proof that you are able to pay the deposit and rent due to a string of time wasters.
This proof is in the form of a Western Union or MoneyGram payment to a lawyer,a friend or family member.

In either case, if payment is made and you give this person the details, they will collect the money.
You will not hear from them again.

All the details such as names, addresses, pictures etc. that the scammer uses in order to back up his story, are stolen from elsewhere.

If you are reading this because you are looking for property to rent, and you are in contact with this thief you are probably searching Craigslist, Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment before viewing, then it will also be a scam. Please forward the mail to me at the address in my signature line and I will investigate and list them if necessary.

I work for the real DepositGuard and this is most definitely a scam. There are actually two real companies with the name DepositGuard. We are based in Austin, Tx and provide payment and escrow services for vacation rentals. We only receive payments via credit card after you create an account and log into our website (www.depositguard.com) and we do not provide any key delivery services, etc. The other company is based in London and it provides a government mandated tenancy protection service. Basically they escrow security deposits for long term rentals.

The scammers are stealing both of our corporate identities and claiming they either work for one of our companies or are using our services in the transaction. However they ask the renter to send the money to them directly and are never heard from again. We have placed a scam warning on our homepage and the London based DepositGuard has done the same. We have also reported this to the Internet Fraud Division of the FBI.