A mum was "scammed" by a phoney landlord after trying to secure a home for her family. Karen Howell-Ball, 50, was desperate to move with her partner and daughter.
After claims they were being subjected to hate crime, the mum had been looking for new rental properties. Due to credit issues, the couple were forced to look at non-agency properties.
After finding one in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, which looked perfect, they contacted the landlord, who had posted photos of the property on social media.
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The private landlord booked them in for a viewing, but it soon became clear to Karen that the landlord was not the official owner of the house, Yorkshire Live reports.
"We were really desperate to move because we are suffering hate crime at the moment, we even offered £50 extra on the rent," Karen said.
"We said we really want the house, so he said he could send an application form to do credit checks, we filled that in and it was legitimate. We didn’t think anything of it, he asked for more details about the credit check.
Then I asked, how does it work securing the property? He said it’s four weeks rent, he wasn’t at all pushy for the money at all, then he said he had to put viewings on hold because someone had secured it with a deposit.”
"I got another message the next day - saying I could then secure it." Karen had seen the house on Facebook marketplace, filled out the landlord application where she gave her details and driving licence number.
After alarm bells started ringing, she decided not to go ahead and pay the deposit. But she claims she was then contacted by a lady in Bradford who claims they created a bank account in her name.
She said: "I got a message from this girl saying ‘you scammed me’ ‘you took my money’. In the meantime, I went on open rent and saw the house and it said no pets, the advertisement was completely different.
"This girl told me ‘I took her money’ and she showed me a receipt with my name, sort code and account number - he must have opened the account in my name.
"This scammer is a really clever one, he has blocked everything, taken off all the comments and has obviously now moved onto Bradford."
Karen reported the scam to North Yorkshire Police, who then passed it on to Action Fraud UK. A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said: "North Yorkshire Police received a report of fraud at 5.07pm on Tuesday 25 October 2022.
"In line with force procedure, we referred this report to Action Fraud which is the national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime in England.
"Action Fraud record the details of all fraud offences and investigate lines of enquiry. They then disseminate the report of fraud/cyber-crime to the most suitable police force to progress the investigation."
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