Con artists and fraudsters are constantly changing their tactics. This is why we continually monitor the use of our service, as from time to time tenants can sadly find themselves a target.
We’ve identified a new scam which is targeting tenants using websites such as Myhomes.ie & Daft.ie.
How to spot the scam
First and foremost, we will never ask you to make a payment directly to us.
You should only ever make a deposit payment to the letting agency or landlord, and we advise that wherever possible you inspect the property/room in person before doing so. Always obtain a receipt.
In many scams, communication is conducted via email. Tell-tale signs will be bad spelling or grammar and overly informal language (e.g. “finish the deal”). They may also try to make you feel under pressure to do what they want, and will sometimes ask you to confirm information that they should already have.
We also don’t provide deposit protection for tenancies in the Republic of Ireland, so if you’re told the property is in the South and the deposit is to be protected with us , this should ring alarm bells.
Protecting your money
Fortunately fraudulent landlords and letting agents are a minority in our industry. The majority are genuine and treat their tenants fairly. For further peace of mind, it’s also worth checking if your landlord or agent is a member of an industry body such as the Landlords Association of Northern Ireland (LANI), the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), or the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS). Membership of these schemes indicates that a letting agent/landlord is genuine and committed to improving standards in the private rented sector. If you’re dealing with a letting agent, you can also check if they operate a client money protection scheme. The Safe Agent mark is an industry accreditation that shows an agent uses client money protection, which can also give you additional reassurance about the organisation or person you’re dealing with.
Staying safe online
Here’s a few other tips:
- Keep your passwords secret
- Where possible, use passwords that include numbers, capital letters, lower case letters and symbols to make them more secure
- Don’t write passwords down or save them in your phone
- Take a good look at emails before clicking on any link – if it looks fake, or the offer sounds too good to be true, then think twice
- You can also watch our video on ‘phishing’ to help you learn more about staying safe from fraudsters using email as a way to gain your personal information
If you’re still not sure if an email has come from us, please forward it to us here and we’ll let you know if it’s genuine.