Scammers tried to get a €900 deposit for this ‘Dublin’ apartment... it’s actually in Brooklyn
SCAM artists are using fake Facebook profiles to target people struggling to find accommodation in Dublin.
As the rental market in the capital becomes increasingly competitive, househunters have turned to online rental groups on social networks like Facebook.
One such group, House Hunting in Dublin, was set up last year and has amassed almost 1,000 members.
Users post on the group to help each other find homes or to offer rooms for rent.
But over the last few weeks, users have noticed suspicious properties being advertised.
One advert posted this week by a woman called Jennifer Wogan offered double rooms in a spacious apartment on Capel Street in the city centre for just €400.
Kelvin Murray, 30, has been struggling to find affordable accommodation and was excited at the prospect of living in the heart of the city.
‘Scan the receipt and
email it to me’
Mr Murray, a research analyst for an antivirus company, messaged Ms Wogan to inquire about renting the property and was sent more pictures and information.
‘The apartment is fully furnished and well equipped with modern facilities like wireless internet service, dishwasher, oven, washing machine and central heating system,’ Ms Wogan said. She told Mr Murray she was living in Liverpool and proposed a complicated plan for getting the keys to him.
She asked if he would send €900, the first month’s rent and security deposit, to one of his own relatives in Britain by Western Union.
‘You will then scan the Western Union receipt and email it to me so that I can verify that you made the transaction,’ she said.
Ms Wogan promised to send the keys to Mr Murray by UPS once he confirmed that the money had been transferred. She said she would meet his relative to collect the cash.
The scam has been carried out in Britain, the US and in Europe in recent years. Once the scammer has the name and address of the relative, they can collect the money with a fake ID.
When Mr Murray learned that he would not be able to view the apartment before sending the money, alarm bells sounded and he pulled out of the transaction.
‘Although I always suspected this was a scam, part of me really wanted to believe her.
‘The place and rent was great and I was being a dreamer,’ said Mr Murray, who has now returned to trawling Daft.ie to try to find a new place to live.
An Irish Mail on Sunday investigation revealed that the photos of Ms Wogan’s property were actually of an apartment currently up for rent in Brooklyn, New York, and advertised for rent on US real estate website trulia.com.
A reporter from this newspaper posed as someone interested in renting the apartment on Capel Street and asked to discuss the matter over the phone. Ms Wogan agreed to talk on Skype and supplied her username but did not answer the call. A Google search revealed that the Skype username matched the profile of a 24-yearold woman from Lagos, Nigera, on a social networking site named Eskimi. The photo shows an Afri- can woman smiling into the camera. It is not the same woman who appears on the Facebook profile using the name ‘Jennifer Wogan’.
Further searches online revealed that ‘Jennifer Wogan’ appeared on a website called scamwarners.com
A post from July 2011 claims the woman in question is a scam artist out to defraud people by asking them to send deposits by Western Union. It warns: ‘If payment is made and you give this person the details, they will collect the money. You will not hear from them again.’
The website includes the IP address of ‘Jennifer Wogan’ which originates in Lagos, Nigeria.
The ease with which scammers can create fake profiles on Facebook has made this type of fraud much easier to carry out.
In this case, the fraudster stole photos from someone else’s social media account and appears on Face- book as a pretty, smiling brunette.
At least one of the images appears to have been stolen from the LinkedIn page of a nurse working for a non-profit charity in Britain.
The profile says ‘Ms Wogan’ studied at King’s College in London and works at British American Tobacco in Liverpool, where she also lives.
She has uploaded photos of her graduation, engagement and holidays and at first glance it appears exactly like a genuine profile.
Facebook doesn’t allow profiles that ‘pretend to be someone else’ or ‘don’t represent a real person’ but relies on its users to report suspicious accounts.
‘You will not hear from
her again’