A mum-of-one has shared her traumatic ordeal after a “fake” landlord allegedly opened a bank account in her name to scam money from strangers.
Karen Howell-Ball has been left feeling “mentally drained” after claiming to be the victim of an elaborate fraud carried out online.
In August, along with her wife and their daughter, they were looking for a new home after allegedly experiencing "hate" in their neighbourhood for being a same-sex couple.
Karen 50, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, looked tirelessly on websites such as OpenRent, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace, where she eventually came across a house that “ticked all the boxes”.
But instead of receiving a hopeful new beginning, she was met with a nightmare.
Soon after sending in the required documents and passing credit checks to rent the property, Karen received a text from a stranger who claimed the mum had stolen her money.
And it was the beginning of a snowball situation, as more and more people claimed to have been told to wire money to the phoney landlord who was using Karen's name.
“I was so confused,” she told NeedToKnow.online.
“I asked her [the stranger] for some more information and she sent me a photo of a receipt with my name on it, with an account number and sort code I had never heard of.
“Quickly, I realised I had been scammed and a phoney landlord had taken my details [after I applied for the property], opened a bank account with them and started asking people for deposits.
“All I wanted was a house with a garden and enough space to create many happy family memories.
“I looked everywhere and started to become hopeless until I saw a place on Facebook Marketplace in an area I knew.
“It was within our monthly budget, had three bedrooms, a nice garden, big drive – I couldn’t believe it.
“I clicked on the private landlord’s profile, expressed my interest and he said there were viewings being held a few days later.
“As we were so desperate, I offered an extra £50 rent per month, but he replied saying while this was very generous, he needed to speak with his wife about this first.”
Due to the man's “genuine” response, the couple were sold on the legitimacy of the advertisement and, upon his acceptance, they eagerly awaited the next steps.
After submitting standard forms via email, the pair were booked in for viewing – but were soon told the property had been snapped up by someone else.
But when looking on OpenRent for a new home, they came across an advert which looked suspiciously similar
Karen said: “It was the exact same house, but the description said no dogs, no benefits, and no CCJs – so I was very confused.”
The mum questioned the original landlord, who claimed it was a duplicate listing by his brother-in-law.
The couple then found another property through an agency and were excited to move on from the ordeal – until they received the bizarre text in October.
Karen claims the “fake” landlord used their details to open a bank account to “scam” people into giving him money.
Concerned, she posted on social media about the issue and was inundated with messages from people claiming they were about to make a payment to the same landlord.
She immediately reported him to the police.
Karen said: “The next morning, I had a phone call from the woman who currently lives in the house, who told me the real landlord wasn’t happy as people had been showing up all day.”
Since then, she has received a bank card for the fraudulent bank account and has reported the situation to North Yorkshire Police and Action Fraud for further investigation.
The family has been left feeling reeling from the ordeal.
Karen added: “I feel really stupid, because I’m quite a clever person, but I still gave my details over, despite all the alarm bells.
“It’s not done my mental health any good but we wouldn’t have gone down this line had we not been so desperate to move.
“We just wanted a better life and this has completely drained us – no one should ever have to go through something like this.”
A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said: "North Yorkshire Police received a report of fraud at 5:07 pm 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 records the details of all fraud offences and investigates lines of enquiry. They then disseminate the report of fraud/cyber-crime to the most suitable police force to progress the investigation."
