The Advance Payment Scan – another internet scam to watch out for
Syndicated from The Landlord Law Blog » FLW Article
We have written on the Landlord Law Blog about scammers before. Ben Reeve has kindly drawn my attention to this article on the BBC web-site which warns of yet another internet scam, the “advance fee fraud”.
This is where you are asked to wire money to a friend or relative to prove that you can pay the rent, and provide details to prove that you have done this. The scammer then collects the money and disappears.
Michael Banks, of Scamwarners.com told the BBC
“You think it’s secure, you’re making that payment to your relative, then you send him the details of it so he can check you’re of financial standing.
Unfortunately you don’t see your money again, it’s been collected and it’s not your brother that’s collected it.”
Scammers often post false property details on quite reputable web-sites (who do their best to stop them, but you can’t catch everyone). So be wary, and very suspicious if anyone asks you to wire money to a relative as proof of payment.
