How to avoid fraud - does this sound like a scam?

jc2008

Myself and a group of other students are looking for accommodation in Dublin. We found a nice place and got in touch. The guy got back to us to say No Thank You as we were students and he wanted families/professionals. This guy wasn't from a letting agency, he had a gmail address.

A week later, I get a call from another guy about the same house, asking if we were still interested and arranged a viewing for this. He said the original person was away this week so he was doing the viewings etc. himself. He sent me an email in addition to his call, and its from a hotmail (!) address.

To top this, the property has been removed from rent.ie and daft.ie last weekend, so I rang to confirm if it was still available and he said yes.

Does this sound dodgy? The property looks lovely, good location etc, so I hope it's genuine and we get it.
What questions should we ask at the viewing this week to confirm its legitimancy? How can we pay our deposit in a safe way if it comes to that? I don't want him taking the money and us never getting the house!

housetypeb

Why not E-mail the first guy as you have his address?

mobfromcork

I got seriously messed about last year by a guy in Castleknock doing this. I replied to an ad on daft, a different guy contacted me saying beware acting on behalf of the first guy. He showed us the house but then tried to persuade us to take another house instead. He was using different phone numbers and I found out through a bit of Google detective work that he was pretending he was someone else. The house that we wanted fell through, luckily for us. I'd hate to deal with a landlord like that. Another person I work with was also messed about by this guy who lets a good few houses and apartments in the Castleknock area

jc2008

The email from the second guy quotes my email to the first person, so I imagine they are in correspondence seeing as they have access to the other's emails - but this doesn't prove anything really.

If I pay the deposit by cheque and ask for a receipt, do I have any rights if it turns out to be a scam, or is it just 'tough luck you should have been more careful'?

Doop

Does sound a little bit fishy, but you should get in touch with the first guy again and see what he says.

In my opinion you're best bet in terms of paying the security deposit is to do it on the move in date (most agency's operate this way)
That way at least you are in the property have keys/ inventory etc. And yes get a receipt etc.

You ask if it turns out to be a scam, what rights do you have....well none, a scam is a scam. If they want the deposit in advance of moving in a possibility might be to offer a post dated cheque, dated for the move in date. Just an idea might not be fool proof!

Let us know how u get on!

jc2008

Thanks! I can't imagine a landlord willing to accept a post-dated cheque though?

I emailed daft.ie to ask was there a particular reason that the ad was removed and this was the jist of the reply.

daft.ie support wrote:

Advertisers must log in and renew their adverts every X amount of days (X depends on where the property is / what type of advert) or else it will automatically deactivate from the site. It looks like they just have forgotten to log in and renew the advert and it's automatically deactivated itself. I cannot see anything on the account to indicate they are scammers, they have advertised before.

So hopefully!