Scammers on Private Property

D

Dimpled_Dude

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Hi guys,

I have been looking for a new place to rent in Sandton and I have come across a large numbers of scammers on the private property site....Out of the four places that we liked, three were scam artists. I'm just curious if anyone esle has noticed/expericed this?

And alternatively, please becareful if you are trying to get a place through private property. I would hope they run some validation checks to ensure this stuff doesn't happen. I think the safest option is to probably go through an agent...

Im currently toying with one of the scammers from somewhere in Africa (though he claims to be British). these guys aren't the brightest bunch around...

Im curoius to hear everyone else's experiences.

Cheers,
DD
 
Doubt the police will do anything but private property sure will.
 
Please explain more - how do you know they were scammers, what do they do?

Please provide us with as much information as possible, so we can avoid them.
 
My experience with privateproperty.co.za is that some of the properties advertised by agents aren't actually available. I had several experiences with different agents where I would phone them about a particular property to be told that the property wasn't available anymore, but weeks or even months later, I'd still see the property being advertised.
 
Yeah thats because they are too lazy to remove the ads....

Agents are also crap to deal with and don't keep their appointments. Would rather purchase privately just to avoid the agents (slackers).
 
Sometimes you will see a rental with pics etc & its quite a bit cheaper then other units. This grabs the persons eye & they contact the person renting via email.

You then receive an email from them thanking you for your interest in the property but unfortunately they are out of town on business. They then tell you that someone is looking at the place today which puts some people in a must secure now panic. This person says that if they pay a deposit to secure they will cancel the other viewing & you can go look at the property.

They send you an email with a date & time to view it & that someone will open for you. When you get to the security gate on the way you find out that the owner in that specific until knows nothing about the scam & then the guards send you away.

I know its stupid but some people are actually dumb enough to put money into other peoples accounts. If nobody fell for it they would have stopped doing it.
 
Humberto said:
My experience with privateproperty.co.za is that some of the properties advertised by agents aren't actually available. I had several experiences with different agents where I would phone them about a particular property to be told that the property wasn't available anymore, but weeks or even months later, I'd still see the property being advertised.
Click to expand...

Yeah, experienced that as well. Bait and switch to generate leads.
 
Ancalagon said:
Please explain more - how do you know they were scammers, what do they do?

Please provide us with as much information as possible, so we can avoid them.
Click to expand...

So two that we have seen were priced quite nicely (R6000 for a two bedroom fully furnished place in Sandton central). The hall mark of this one was a sob story about the owner who had become ill and had to move back to England. And he wants the property to be rented out so that he could get cash and hence the price. The guy who was handling it was a middle man rental agency from the UK. I'll paste the first correspondence from them and tell me if you guys can pick up on why its a scam. I have just placed in the (dot) into the url so that it doesnt link.

_______________________________
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry.
We confirm that the property located at (Joh- 86 Grayston Dr, Sandton 2031) is available for lease for R4500/520$ p/m including all utilities (Internet, electricity and water) for as long as you need. Amazing, newly renovated apartment available for rent, you will find a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a freezer, a washing machine , a dryer, an iron, an oven, a toaster, a coffee maker, vacuum cleaner, a big screen TV, cable TV with the basic access, ADSL Internet and WI-FI access. Also the apartment is near the public transportation, a gym, and other facilities.

There are no problems if you have any pets, as long as you cleanup after them. We're interested in finding a tenant who will be taking good care of the property. (Minimum lease period 3 months). The two months up front payment plus one month security deposit is the total of R13500(US$1560). The minimum period of time that you can rent the apartment for is 3 months.

We are an UK based Rental Manager Company. We manage properties all over the world. The owner of the property (Joh- 86 Grayston Dr, Sandton 2031) has moved to the UK due to health issues and is no longer able to rent the apartment himself. This is why, he listed the property with us and on our website and put us in charge of taking care of the rental. The transaction will be done under our close supervision and under a contract.

We will provide assistance in handling the payment and delivery of the Keys and Lease Agreement. With this procedure you will be able to check the apartment before we release the payment to the owner. We have 2 more persons interested in renting the apartment so please send us your full name and address ASAP if you are ready to rent the apartment. The first person who will send us the details for the lease contract will be the new tenant, we believe this is fair enough.

Here you can find the property listed on our website: "http://smartrentalsmanager(dot)com/property-p75002-in-sandton-77.html"
Thank you for your interest and I will wait news from you.
Best Regards, Antonio


--

Yours Sincerely,

Antonio Pirel
Property Manager
"www(dot)smartrentalsmanager(dot)com"
"inquires@smartrentalsmanager(dot)com"
 
I don't see any payment/ask for payment.. so my scam meter is not buzzing yet....

The other tenants is just a sales trick. As soon as they ask for $$.. then be worried. But why is the guy in UK, they show $ ?
 
TelkomUseless said:
I don't see any payment/ask for payment.. so my scam meter is not buzzing yet....

The other tenants is just a sales trick. As soon as they ask for $$.. then be worried. But why is the guy in UK, they show $ ?
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So the R4.5K pm ALL IN furnished, a stones throw from Sandton City didnt set off your scamometer?:confused:
 
TelkomUseless said:
I don't see any payment/ask for payment.. so my scam meter is not buzzing yet....

The other tenants is just a sales trick. As soon as they ask for $$.. then be worried. But why is the guy in UK, they show $ ?
Click to expand...

Ok so the only way to view the apartment is to pay over the deposit to this "management" company...the way they explain it to put your mind at ease is to say that the money wont released to the owner until you say you are happy with the aparment. If you arent, then this management company will release the payment.

Anyways, the quick way to notice this is a scam is to search for the property management company....there really is a smartrentalmanger but its SMARTRENTALMANAGER. the one above has an s in it thereby making it smartrentalSmanger. Also the way they spell inquiries is another dead giveaway.
 
Dimpled_Dude said:
Ok so the only way to view the apartment is to pay over the deposit to this "management" company...the way they explain it to put your mind at ease is to say that the money wont released to the owner until you say you are happy with the aparment. If you arent, then this management company will release the payment.

Anyways, the quick way to notice this is a scam is to search for the property management company....there really is a smartrentalmanger but its SMARTRENTALMANAGER. the one above has an s in it thereby making it smartrentalSmanger. Also the way they spell inquiries is another dead giveaway.
Click to expand...

Ok.. I read it that you can view the apartment before renting (paying anything). My bad. I would never pay to see the place.(who is crazy to do that?).
 
TelkomUseless said:
Ok.. I read it that you can view the apartment before renting (paying anything). My bad. I would never pay to see the place.(who is crazy to do that?).
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I would hope nobody is crazy enough to do it. but I have come across two such scams in the course of a few days so I'm thinking people do fall for it...
 
Dimpled_Dude said:
I would hope nobody is crazy enough to do it. but I have come across two such scams in the course of a few days so I'm thinking people do fall for it...
Click to expand...

Yip.. there are probably people falling for it (like the you won Rx on smses etc).
 
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