Renting a London Flat – Don’t Get Mugged from a Gumtree Advert

Image via CrunchBase

Be careful about carrying large amounts of cash. Admittedly this scam is less common with Flats, but beware taking large amounts of cash to meet someone that you don’t know, or to an isolated place, especially at night. It’s not just your money that you might lose, but also your life – a man was stabbed in the heart and left for dead after replying to a bogus advertisement for a car on listing website Gumtree. The 42-year-old victim took £5,000 in cash with him to a rendezvous in a street in east London with a man he believed was the seller. When he arrived he was punched and kicked to the ground by two men before being stabbed six times, his life was saved by a passer-by who intervened in the attack and the skills of air ambulance doctors who carried out open heart surgery at the scene. More recently a man was beaten and stabbed in east London when he went to buy a BMW car advertised on Gumtree. Now it is very normal for a landlord to ask for advance rent and deposit in cash, but be careful that you know the situation well. Best of all is to ask a Landlord requiring cash to meet you at your bank – withdraw the cash and hand it over on the premises. Don’t forget to get a signed receipt!