Renters Beware: Rise in Email Frauds Leads to Civil Cases!

Date Posted:Thu, 9th May 2024

We at KLF have seen an increasing number of fraudulent email cases, in which landlords are being hacked and bank transfers for rent deposits are being sent to the wrong/fraudulent bank accounts leading to a civil case.

Our recent win, for our client Mr Adrian Shillingford a UK resident (Case Number: 02/10505/2023), in which this exact scenario occurred and the Landlord’s tried to claim the rental payment from him again via the courts, evict him for nonpayment of rent, and threatened to open a criminal investigation against him and his family. He had done nothing wrong aside from paying his rent via bank transfer as instructed by the landlord’s email.

Our firm has recently won this case for Adrian on a Pro-bono matter and he has since left the property due to the understandable stress that this has brought him and his family.

Therefore, we would suggest that BCCD members no longer pay rent or deposits via bank transfers and are wary of email communications requesting payments or providing bank account details unless the Buyer/landlord, please also confirm this is the correct account and try to make all payments via Cheque as is the standard practice in the UAE to avoid anything like this happening again.

Please feel free to reach out to Jazmine Stevenson on the Free WhatsApp legal helpline +971 55 926 9572 for any queries or to join the broadcast group that updates clients on similar matters to protect their best interests.