‘We lost £5,000 in a rental fraud scam and now we’re facing homelessness’

18 June 2025, 16:51 | Updated: 19 June 2025, 09:56

A group of tenants have spoken to LBC about the "trauma" of being scammed out of thousands of pounds in a sophisticated housing con.

Finding a privately rented flat in London, where competition is high and demand for housing often outstrips supply, can be stressful.

But the challenge of renting turned into nightmare for four friends who lost £5,000 to a sophisticated and well-executed rental scam.

Rental scams are becoming increasingly common.

Recent government data reveals nearly £9 million was lost across around 5,000 reported cases last year.

What’s more, 18- to 39-year-olds account for almost three quarters of rental fraud reports, according to Home Office data.

Joe Greene, 32, Maria Kontouli, 27, Paulina Kasprzak, 28, and Eva Thomas, 26, were already in a predicament before they fell victim to a scam. Joe explains that he and his three friends were facing “eviction” by the live-in leaseholder of the property they rented.

“The landlord tried to [evict us] in less than 30 days — with no reason provided,” he says.

In a rush to find a new place for the four housemates to live, the group began their search for a new home on established rental websites.

‘Pressure’

The group found a decent and well-priced four-bedroom property listed on OpenRent and Rightmove, which was in Archway, north London.

“It seemed too good to be true,” reflects Joe.

Yet with the group in desperate need of a new flat, they booked a viewing. Joe said they felt reassured since they saw the flat was listed on legitimate rental websites.

When Maria went to view the property, she was shown around by a woman who posed as the “estate agent.”

Impressed with the flat, the group decided they wanted to make an offer. The ‘estate agent’ explained that another person, a property manager, oversees the letting and shared the details of this individual with Maria.

Through a series of exchanges over email and phone, the property manager asked the group to supply documents such as Right to Rent forms and copies of their passports.

After receiving the documents, the property manager eventually asked them to pay the holding deposit of £625 through a well-known international transfer exchange service.

“The fake property manager claimed the landlord lived in Belgium, insisting we needed to pay the money through this platform,” said Maria.

She adds: “We were in a situation of having two weeks to leave from a house that we lived in, and we just wanted to believe it was true.”

The group had previously checked the property manager’s existence online. He had deliberately chosen the name of a real property manager and a genuine letting agency that was listed on Companies House.

Maria said: “After I paid the holding deposit, the fake property manager started contacting me every day and said he was starting the referencing process, before eventually sending over a 16-page contract.”

He then started to pressure the group to sign the contract and proceed to pay the first month’s rent (£4,375), which they eventually did.

Starting to question the legitimacy of the deal after the property manager refused to allow the tenants to view the property again before the move-in date, Joe decided to take matters into his own hands and went to visit the property by himself — without setting up an ‘official’ viewing.

He was immediately alarmed to see there were people living in the house.

“I knocked on the door and a teenage girl answered, who looked confused but seemed to know the name of this fake property agent,” said Joe.

“I asked her if she was planning to move out soon, but she said, ‘No, this is our house.’”

The young girl seemed unwilling to give any more information and slammed the door in his face, at which point Joe knew for certain they had fallen victim to a scam.

Joe describes the fake property agent as “organised” and “sophisticated” and said they have been in contact with other victims of the same fraudster.

‘Traumatising’

The group reported the scam to their banks and Action Fraud — the reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Action Fraud advised the case would take 28 days to be reviewed and that it could be passed on to the Metropolitan Police to investigate.

Due to losing such a large sum of money, the group — who are mostly freelancers on zero-hour contracts — have been left in a precarious situation.

Paulina has moved in with her partner, while Ava has been able to return to the house she was living in before.

However, Maria has now registered as homeless and is currently staying temporarily at friends’ houses, while Joe is living temporarily in an eight-person house share until he can afford to find something else more suitable.

He says, “It’s not the situation I wanted to be in.”

“The whole experience has been traumatising,” Maria tells me. “We’re all devastated.”

“I know I'm not going to get my money back from those people — but they deserve the worst,” she adds.

When asked about what he wants to happen from here, Joe tells LBC: “I'd love them to get charged and locked up, but I feel just cautioning everyone about the warning signs and how not to get into this situation is probably the most important thing.”

Joe believes that the fraudster may have intentionally targeted non-native English speakers, since the fake property manager dealt mainly with Maria, who is from Cyprus.

The group say they have been left with no option but to set up a GoFundMe to try and recoup some of their losses.

'Comprehensive vetting system’

When contacted by LBC, OpenRent said it would like to offer its support to the group to further “understand” the issue.

It added: “The OpenRent platform is specifically designed to protect tenants by securely handling payments, with funds held in escrow until the tenant has moved in.

“This service is completely free to tenants, and means that when our process and advice is followed, we can entirely eliminate the possibility of fraud, as well as allow us to support with any issues or disputes that might arise.”

The spokesperson continued: “OpenRent has a comprehensive vetting system in place to verify the legitimacy of landlords and properties listed on our platform, and these processes involve multiple layers of checks to ensure that the properties and landlords are genuine.”

However, the spokesperson cautioned that “when users choose to go off-platform against our explicit guidance, unfortunately we cannot guarantee the safety of funds.”

Meanwhile, a Rightmove spokesperson said: “Only estate and letting agents can advertise properties on our platform, who have been through a strict vetting process to be allowed to advertise with us.

“Agents will have their own extensive processes to reduce the risk of fraudulent activity as much as possible. We have a dedicated team and technology in place to help detect fraudulent listings, to ensure that this remains an extremely rare occurrence.”

Ben Reeve-Lewis, Policy and Strategy Manager at Safer Renting — an independent tenants’ rights advocacy service — told LBC the situation which Joe, Maria, Paulina, and Eva face is “routine and typical,” and adds that, unfortunately, they have very little chance of getting their money back.

“This is because the perpetrators were doubtless not using their real names, and even if by some miracle they can trace them, the likelihood is that they will have no assets with which to enforce any money claim.”

He adds: “The biggest change I have seen [in my career] has been a move from individual, well-known local players to the situation we have had for around the past 15 years, where property prices, rent levels, and austerity cuts to teams in local authority responsible for investigating and dealing with breaches of the law mean that the opportunities to make a fast buck in the rental business often outweigh the risk — and attract criminal, often organised, activity.”

Mr Reeve-Lewis explains that “long gone are the ‘chancers’ of the 1990s,” who are “replaced by a new breed of fraudster, often using the internet for anonymity, routinely using aliases and fake companies, as well as owners, directors, [and] agents, deliberately created to confuse renters, lawyers, and enforcement teams alike.”

One of the most pressing issues currently facing London’s rental market is the rise of ‘Rent to Rent’ scams, explains Mr Reeve-Lewis.

These scams involve individuals or companies posing as legitimate landlords or agents — sometimes with the property owner's knowledge, sometimes without — who then let out properties, collect rent and deposits, but fail to meet their legal responsibilities as property managers.

When legal action is taken, they often sidestep consequences by dissolving their limited companies. In many cases, the law does not permit enforcement against the actual property owners, even though they hold the asset.

He adds: “Safer Renting’s data showed that in 9% of such cases, the fake landlord was merely a tenant themselves, who disappeared with the money, never to be seen again. But in 58% of cases, the intermediate landlord was a property management company — strongly suggesting that R2R property scams are actually criminality within the lettings industry itself, not lone rogue blaggers.”