‘Help! Would-be tenants are turning up at my door because of a fake Facebook ad’

Dear Amelia,

Over the past two months four separate people have called at our house to inform us our home is advertised for rent on Facebook. They were prospective renters.

Our house is not for rent or sale and this appears to be a scam of which we know absolutely nothing. We are elderly and very concerned about this matter.

We are not Facebook users so are not sure how to put a stop to this.

- J.T., Lincoln

Dear reader,

You didn’t have many conversations with the strangers who turned up at your house as you didn’t want them to think you were involved in the scam. However, you did find out that the fraudster was claiming to be a woman based in Madrid.

She was not using pictures of your house on the Facebook listing, but she did have your address, and she told one of the prospective renters she would send them keys to the property if they paid a £970 deposit.

I didn’t have much information to go on to find the listing on Facebook, which I needed to be able to report it. I just had your location.

However, I asked chartered security professional, James Bore, from cybersecurity firm Bores, to track it down. He found it within half an hour, using different parts of your address, and reported it to Facebook.

In the meantime, I messaged the “landlord”, an elderly lady, whose last post appeared to be in 2019, posing as an interested tenant.

She replied with an email address, telling me to contact her for more information. I sent the email address to Mr Bore who began a back and forth correspondence with the fraudster using a burner email address until we got to the crux of the scam.

The fraudster claimed to have inherited the property from her grandfather two years ago and is renting it out as she lives in Madrid. She requested personal details from Mr Bore, including name, address, telephone number and a copy of his passport.

He sent over fake information including a photo of a mocked-up driving licence. In return, the fraudster sent us a copy of “her passport” which presumably belonged to one of her scam victims.

The fraudster also explained, as she is abroad, we needed to do everything via OpenRent, an online letting service. This included transferring £1,420, including a deposit and the first month’s rent, within 24 hours to secure the property. She said the company would hold the money until the contract was signed and keys were received.

If there were any issues or if he no longer wanted the property following inspection, she said OpenRent would refund the money.

However, the OpenRent website she sent was fake. The URL was slightly different and could easily have been mistaken for the genuine site. But those who transfer money to the fraudster’s bank account, included in the attached invoice, will most likely lose it.

Mr Bore told the fraudster his bank would not allow the payment as it was suspicious and asked for an alternative account to pay, but received a curt reply saying: “Since no answer comes from your side, I have cancelled the reservation. Good luck.”

At the time of writing, Facebook has not yet removed the listing despite both Mr Bore and myself reporting it through our personal accounts, nor when I went through the press office over two weeks ago.

A spokesman said: “We don’t allow fraudulent activity on our platforms and are investigating the content brought to our attention.”

This was a disappointing, and somewhat concerning, response from the tech giant especially since I explained you were elderly and very worried about all the people turning up at your home.

I’ve sent you the link to the listing and have suggested you report it to Action Fraud and the police, to see if they can help.

I also reported the fraudster’s bank account to her provider Openbank, which is in Spain, as per the account information she included on the invoice.

Openbank said while it cannot comment on individual accounts, in the case where fraud is suspected it takes appropriate steps to investigate, which may include blocking the account and notifying the relevant authorities.

The copycat OpenRent website is no longer active.

Amelia Murray is deputy editor of personal finance website Becleverwithyourcash.com.