Be aware of rental scams!

[Mark]

Fellow owners, be aware when renting out your apartment. We were recently contacted through the website we advertise on, by someone wishing to rent our apartment out very soon. He seemed genuine and keen. However alarm bells rang when he sent a bankers draft for 3200 English pounds. Of course this is well over the rent we charge. So we contacted the website and they informed us it was probably a scam. When we informed him we wouldn’t accept it, we never heard from him again and up until then we had been bombarded with emails from him.

The way it works is they ask you to cash the bankers draft, and refund them the difference. However on you statement whilst it is going through it tells you that you have available the funds, but really by the time it is supposed to clear, it bounces and you have already reimbursed them 3000 pounds out of your own pocket.

[leigh & andrea 1]

This sounds like a similar scam that was happening with people selling their cars on auto trader, so be aware it may not just be the rentals they scam you on.

Thanks for the information Mark.