Saturday, February 26, 2011

Welcome to London, but watch out for scams

One of the first problems to be addressed when it comes to this island is the search for an apartment and a number of occasions I have been asked for advice on how best to tackle the situation. The solutions are in fact different: reliance on friends to see real estate agencies, from the groom to contact Internet sites ad agencies that help new immigrants find a room and a first job in the capital.

It is obvious that each of these solutions requires special attention to the possible fraud. For example, some agencies asking for money just to show the houses. The agreement, signed by phone often, is: let me X pounds (usually 50/70) and we will visit all the houses that we want, within three months if we did not find anything satisfactory, we will pay you.

Most of the time those seeking home has three months time and can not wait for the agency to call him when she finds something that comes close to its demands. The result is that one pays the agency, but often finds a home through other means and no one will find when you are asked for their money back.

As for ad sites, one of the most important and Gumtree. com, I consulted both times I had to look for accommodation. There are many frauds, well made, but in the end easily exposed. The classic requires sending money through systems like MoneyGram or Western Union. How it works. It is the announcement of a decent home at a good price and in a bad area.

The self-styled Mr Scott, or whoever he is often found only by email to which he answers in much the same way: when you are abroad for peacekeeping missions, to plug the ozone hole, to help the panda to reproduce or other reasons that should make us think that the prospective tenant has to do with a good person.

The problem is that it seems that this aspiring Nobel Prize for Peace has had bad experiences in the past and before returning home to the wind and throw his precious time and money for the trip, wants to make sure the person is really convinced, but most can afford to pay the rent. The Good Samaritan and then asks the details like type of employment, the period of stay, the full name, current address and phone number.

In addition to this should send a figure around 500 pounds (sometimes more) to your friend / family member / trusted person through MoneyGram and send you a receipt with the transaction number as proof of operation. One could fall into it because the fee is not sent to him but to someone you trust.

In fact, with the receipt, Mr. Fox comes into possession of the code of the transaction and going to the nearest MoneyGram can withdraw the amount with a simple forgery. The advice is not to pay a penny until you have your keys in hand and feet planted in the new room. Trivial, but not too much.

Luca Russo, an Italian journalist in London

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