Fraudulent housing scams in London. Please read and share.

Not only am I really angry writing this, but I am also heartbroken. No little than one hour ago, myself and James were ready to hand over to a "landlord", over a grand in borrowed money.

It was a flat, too good to be true, 650 bills included per month in zone 2.
I know someone who lives in one like this and so does James, so even though rare, not too far fetched.

James emailed and sorted things out for a viewing until the "woman" wanted us to use money gram to secure the money as a failsafe for her travelling to London to show us the apartment that is hers but she doesn't live in, as she works in Manchester.
We thought fair enough, that's a long way to travel for a room viewing and money on her part. She made a convincing argument and it all made sense.

James had spent the entire day collecting the money up with me and sorting things as to not mess "her" about as she had given an elaborate story about previous tenants messing her around and he felt really bad and wanted to help by doing what was best for her.

Money gram is a legit thing until you get down to the nitty gritty, which luckily James intuition led him too. He googled it and the first results were people on a forum saying how secure it is NOT.
The second was a result saying for students to be aware of scams on properties at "too good to be true prices" with a follow up of money gram.

Luckily for both of us, James had his head screwed on and went through the emails linking to things giving him a "not quite right feeling". Including the bit where she wanted a scan of the receipt as a guarantee we had the money ready to take the flat. That "receipt" also has the code to access the money, and money gram don't take a lot of their job seriously as there have been a number of reports of them not checking the ID or even if they are the correct gender of the code. We're guessing if this scam has gone on for long enough, that she/he/the fucking wanker might have a relationship with the specific money gram we were going to after the viewing, where a 50 quid bribe or promise to halves, would buy them whatever the fuck breach of security they wanted.

We are beyond grateful to still have our money and I am beyond grateful to James for going with his gut and researching everything, as this was his find.

We struggled for so long finding our own place, we struggled with money and struggled with jobs. Particularly me, whilst James has been keeping us both a float.

This isn't even the worst thing for me.
I don't care we don't have our own flat or that we would have been able to afford it.

The worst thing is I saw the spark and excitement back in my boyfriends eyes.

I saw the hope he hasn't had for so long, I saw him have faith in the world again. I watched him spend the entire day bouncing around with happiness asking me why the lady hadn't emailed back within 2 minutes of him emailing her and planning our trip to Ikea.

That has gone.
And that is what has broken my heart.

Please to anyone searching for a property anywhere, be aware of Money gram and if you have a bad feeling about something, don't ignore it.
It has  made my blood boil how considerate he was all day, making sure he did everything right, just for this to happen.

If I ever find out who the person is that made my partner this sad, I will stick a fork through their eyes. I'm not above giving their computer a virus either.

And if anyone is reading this who happens to be a part of something like this, think about the people you are targeting and how you are affecting their lives. If you don't, I hope the karma fairy comes and shits in your mouth when you're asleep.

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/students-urged-to-watch-out-for-rental-scams-aug12