A lettings agency is warning that fraudsters have copied property listings and put them on Facebook Marketplace, demanding deposits from the public to view the properties.
Farrell Heyworth in Barrow says some of its website photographs have been copied.
A spokesman states: "It has come to our attention that there are fraudsters operating in the North West. These individuals are copying Farrell Heyworth property photographs from our website or social media and are using these to create property listings on Facebook Marketplace as well as requesting deposits to view.
"These individuals do not have authority to let these properties, nor are they able to gain access to the properties.
"We would always recommend letting any property via a reputable lettings agent. If you are interested in letting a property marketed by Farrell Heyworth, please contact us directly. We do not currently advertise any of our lettings properties via Facebook Marketplace."
Farrell Heyworth is one of the country’s largest and highest profile regional agencies.
Last year it reshaped an 18-branch structure into seven hubs, covering much of the north west of England.
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That is just despicable; we had considered 'watermarking' our images but wonder if the watermark can then be removed by the fraudster?
Would the applicant even notice on facebook that there is a watermark?
This practice is becoming more and more commonplace. Last year, we had a lady come into the office who had paid a full deposit to someone via facebook without seeing a property. Once she got there to view and saw our to let board up outside, she came in wanting to claim the deposit back from us! obviously she knew she hadn't paid it to us and had been duped! Sadly she never got the deposit back but we were able to find her a house.. Since then we have watermarked all our front photographs, not sure if people would realise that there is a watermark but hopefully it will help prevent this.
We were impacted by the actions of a fraudulent letting agency (assuming a name VERY close to ours) 9 days ago- despite reporting it to NTSELAT & Met Police Fraud Squad 9 days later their website remains active. How many Tenants have they duped?
We verified the fraud (they have assumed the ID of a legitimate company registered at Companies House) and obtained the details and written testimonials of the people they are pretending to be. Literally handed all relevant and necessary evidence on a plate.
Yet 9 days later their website is still live! I get that enforcement is underfunded but this black & white case they should leap on highlights just how poorly.
Bad for consumers, bad for our industry- utter madness.
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