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Scammers target Irish students desperate for somewhere to live

Deposits are being paid to fraudsters for non-existent properties.

THE UNION OF Students in Ireland (USI) has issued a warning over scam artists taking advantage of needy students.

In recent weeks fake ads have appeared across a number of websites offering non-existent accommodation to needy students.

Those caught up in the scheme are then duped into handing over deposit money. Students identified as being particularly vulnerable to these scams are those coming to Ireland from abroad and first year students.

The fraud has been made possible by the recent housing shortage that has seen students desperate for accommodation.

In one case yesterday a student who had come to Ireland from overseas paid out €700 for the deposit and first month’s rent on a room purported to be in an apartment on Dublin’s Fade Street.

When the student went around to see the property the owner was unaware that any deal had taken place. The incident has been reported to gardai.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie about the scams Greg O’Donoghue, Vice President for Welfare of the USI, said:

It is important that students do the research. They need to make sure it is adequate accommodation. Don’t sign a lease unless you have read the contract.

It was advised that students struggling to find accommodation should contact the Private Residential Tendencies Board (IRTB) or Threshold. The IRTB offer a service for students searching for digs.

In addition to this students can search for spare rooms, apartments and digs on the USI’s Homes for Study website.

Read: Students to be put up in hotels due to building delays at Montrose site

Also: College students warned they may have to stay in hostels in accommodation scramble

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48 Comments
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    Mute Glen
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    Aug 26th 2014, 5:57 PM

    Opportunists are the worst kind of criminal … No conscience no morals they realise the need for student housing and prey on people.

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    Mute James Franco
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:18 PM

    Well said.

    44
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    Mute Eamonn O'Riain
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:29 PM

    i have a healthy hatred of students and their silliness (yes, i was one, and yes i was damned fu**in stoopid), but to try to make a quick sneaky buck outta swindling them out of the money they need to pay for a place to study so they can get out of this austerity-driven hell-hole is REALLY below the belt.
    Stay classy con-men!

    54
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    Mute Ollie
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:04 PM

    Probably some poor desperate 17 year old Paul. I’m guessing you were never young and naive?

    179
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    Mute PAUL DOYLE
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:48 PM

    Young yes naive no

    20
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    Mute Mr Phil Officer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:09 PM

    Paul how long is the queue?

    56
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    Mute Aedín Nic GC
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    Aug 27th 2014, 2:08 AM

    This happened to a friend of mine who moved over to dublin from holland. The property didn’t exist but she had already paid her deposit. When she reported it to the gardai they just told her it was her own fault for being so stupid. They didn’t even bother taking any info. She was new in the country. What a welcome!

    38
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    Mute ✨sunshine
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    Aug 26th 2014, 11:01 PM

    I saw an ad for a 3 bedroom apartment including bills in Stepaside for €600! I emailed coz I thought it was just for 1 room and was told it was the whole place, that the owner ‘is a constructor engineer in the UK’ and that they aren’t trying to make money from it ‘as they live in luxury in the UK’. But best part was – if I wanted to arrange a VIEWING I just had to transfer €600 to a letting company bank account who would provide me with a viewing time, but if I decided not to take the place they’d refund me that same day! Obviously set off alarm bells and I knew it was a scam. Sadly I’m sure someone could be tricked. Moral of this whole thing ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!’

    98
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    Mute david jordan
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    Aug 26th 2014, 9:19 PM

    im currently looking for a place in dublin. spoke with 3 scammers today via facebook.

    Asking for deposits via western union because they are at a business meeting in Manilla or sending long copy and paste messages looking for ALL my personal info is fairly obvious. UNfortunately people are desperate enough to try and get a room they will try it.

    I still have a scammer waiting for my response on fb now if anyone knows who I should report him to or get him caught let me know!

    97
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    Mute John S
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    Aug 27th 2014, 7:44 AM

    If somebody is stupid enough to give a deposit via Western Union and Facebook they need to develop a bit of a brain before they start their post-school education and life.

    35
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    Mute PAUL DOYLE
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    Aug 26th 2014, 5:58 PM

    What sort of simpleton would give a deposit without viewing a property,no sympathy at all for them.

    91
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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:14 PM

    Someone booking accommodation online from abroad or from the country perhaps, Paul.

    204
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:50 PM

    Paul, A few years ago, I advertised a house share ( en suite room ) on Daft and a girl from Finland answered the ad. I spoke to her on the phone once and we transferred a few e mails. She had perfect english and she transferred money into our house bank account from Finland. We were all away as it was just after Christmas and I left a key out for her. We are still in contact seven years later!
    What simpleton would live with someone without meeting them.
    Maybe it is time to decentralise some of the Dublin courses and relocate ones that just need a lecture hall and give a bit of revenue to small towns down in Mayo and Galway Leitrim that manage to send 60% of school leavers on to third level.

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    Mute Big bad bull
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:55 PM

    What the hell are you on?

    20
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:07 PM

    It’s true. Read the HEA report. Maybe we need to bring the colleges to the brains not the other way around and I’m not from these counties.
    Maybe we will all be doing online courses in a few years……..

    67
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    Mute PAUL DOYLE
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:00 PM

    Sally fair play to you your very trusting,I on the other hand wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that it’s madness

    32
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:19 PM

    A lot of irish people had come to view the room and I just trust my gut instinct. I thought a lot of them were plain shifty especially when I said the landlord lives next door and we had a house bank account.
    I talked to this girl on the phone and she answered all the questions as straight as could be in the queen’s english!

    28
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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:28 PM

    You’re. Who’s the simpleton now?

    14
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:45 PM

    a ah ah You’re not working in a sign writing shop. That frightens interesting people away.

    14
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    Mute PAUL DOYLE
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    Aug 26th 2014, 10:35 PM

    Fu*k off matt you clown with your grammar police bol*ox get a girlfriend/boyfriend or just get some exercise you washed up proof reader

    38
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 27th 2014, 11:06 AM

    You mean spelling police. His grammar is perfect.

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    Mute John B
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:02 PM

    Dammit. I was planning on using my inheritance from a remote second cousin of my friends sister who happens to be a Nigerian prince to rent a property from a Jamaican guy who lives in China. Now I haven’t seen the place but he says it’s nice, and it only costs a quarter of the going rate. Are you saying now I might have been scammed?

    90
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    Mute E=MC2
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    Aug 26th 2014, 5:57 PM

    A bankrupt property developer has to earn a crust somehow

    49
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    Mute Denise Friary
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:17 PM

    I met a few students during the summer they came in to see what we do in our job.God love them they hadn’t a clue about much and some of them were 18 years

    37
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:39 PM

    Denise I think they were there to learn. Be nice to them. They might come in the door as an inspector etc of some sort in a few years. Also maybe they were “humble and proud” and playing the fool allowing you to slowly slowly slowly “teach” them how to use the photocopier. No one likes a smart alec. All may not be as it seems.

    162
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    Mute fact&ionlydealinfact
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:23 PM

    No she’s right, had a few in over the last year myself, morons the whole lot of em.

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    Mute Eamonn O'Riain
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:37 PM

    This is what comes of the relentless race for CAO points.
    They sit in their rooms the whole time learning off xyz for the Leaving, while reality takes a back seat.
    I work in a hospital, and the kids that come on pre and post Leaving Cert for work experience, or on placement from college are the smost pindliest, pale skinned things!
    I honestly feel sorry for them.

    46
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:25 PM

    They are right to try and clock up as many points as possible. The Leaving Cert is our greatest social sorting mechanism. The ability to gain a place in a chosen course can place a student from a marginalised background on an upwardly mobile trajectory……according to some social study

    44
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:48 PM

    I hate the word moron. I wonder what they said about their work “experience”.

    37
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 27th 2014, 11:04 AM

    Get the points and then you can worry about sunning yourself for the rest of your life.

    2
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    Mute david jordan
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    Aug 26th 2014, 9:25 PM

    i have spoken with 3 scammers today all on fb groups. I have one waiting for me to respond to him with all my personal info right now. if anyone knows how i can get the w-anchor caught let me know!

    36
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    Mute Jack Dexter
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:12 PM

    Them students must be thick to be caught, I’m not educated left school when I was 15 and no way would I be robbed like that. What do they learn at school for God’s sakes

    23
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    Mute Eric Duffy
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:23 PM

    English, Irish, Maths and a few other subjects. Normally you cant be taught street smarts in school, you learn it hard way… Unless you went to the school of hard knocks… Then it’s like P.E.

    94
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:15 PM

    Jack, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I think in a funny way that we are sending on students to third level that have had such a stable comfortable existence up to now that they have great faith in humanity. The situation is desperate out there as regards accommodation in Dublin.

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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:22 PM

    No , it’s way way worse than your average PE class. That is what the students from the areas that sent 15% of school leavers to third level learnt at school. Thankfully, most of us live in an open safe society that won’t need these skills on a day to day basis. Long may it continue…..the man from microsoft technical support rang me again today …. I put my two year old speaking to him…

    27
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    Mute Shane McGettrick
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:14 PM

    Did you get the computer sorted? There’s been a serious spate of “technical problems” lately. Any word on the Nigerian lottery winnings either?

    26
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 26th 2014, 8:28 PM

    He sounds indian actually…..

    16
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    Mute James Franco
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:16 PM

    Terrible.

    22
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    Mute Darren Norris
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    Aug 26th 2014, 11:25 PM

    Strange the journal would say that most of the scams are occurring on daft. Wonder why

    21
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    Mute Joan Murphy
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    Aug 26th 2014, 11:51 PM

    Darren ,why so strange ? Daft is a very popular web site to go to when you want to look for property to buy or for rent .

    16
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    Mute Sinead Leavy
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    Aug 27th 2014, 12:17 AM

    Because both websites are owned by the same people and there is an assumption they may be bias and look favourably on each other. But it doesn’t look like they have, which is good. That, or they are fighting with each other.

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    Mute Darren Turner
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    Aug 27th 2014, 2:11 AM

    Annnnd.. It’s gone. No more reference to Daft at all. Comical stuff.

    38
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    Mute Johnny Monaghan
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    Aug 26th 2014, 6:59 PM

    Why would anyone pay a deposit without viewing the property??

    Fools and their money…………..

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    Mute Caroline aMarie
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    Aug 26th 2014, 10:35 PM

    NOT cool.

    8
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    Mute Inntalitarian
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    Aug 26th 2014, 7:42 PM

    Survival of the fittest

    8
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    Mute Declan Mannix
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    Aug 27th 2014, 8:51 AM

    Students will have to start taking a picture or video of landlords they hand money over to. Then stick t have at oic on crime line

    6
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    Mute sally saucer
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    Aug 27th 2014, 10:59 AM

    Post dated cheques are the way to go. they can ring up the bank to check if you are sound. You can stop the cheque if you need to after viewing the property.

    3
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    Mute rachel
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    Aug 27th 2014, 11:46 AM

    Rental scams are rampant here in Amsterdam. When I moved here every second advertisement on all the Dutch rental sites was a scam, and unfortunately a lot of students/ young professional expats living in Amsterdam fall into the trap! Really sad to see it’s happening in Dublin. Never transfer money to anyone you’ve spoken to without viewing the property. I was so cautious I waited until I received the keys to hand over anything.

    4
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