Japanese student conned out of £700 in fake Edinburgh flat scam

FOREIGN students are being targeted by fraudsters offering to rent them flats in the Capital which do not exist.

Police are investigating after a Japanese researcher lost £700 in the fake flat scam, and it is understood he may be the latest of several victims.

Jun-ya Shoji paid out a £700 deposit to secure a room in a shared flat "near the university" – but found the address was bogus when he arrived in the city.

The 28-year-old found the flat to rent from his home in Tokyo after placing an advert on the Edinburgh Gumtree website.

A woman responded to his e-mail and asked for a deposit of two months' rent for a flat on Holyrood Park Road, which had to be transferred through Western Union.

She provided him with a scanned copy of what she claimed to be her passport to convince Mr Shoji of her legitimacy, and also e-mailed him photographs of the flat's interior.

The microbiology researcher became suspicious when his prospective flatmate asked him for another three months' rent, which he told her he would not be able to pay – resulting in his tenancy agreement being cancelled.

But it was not until he arrived in the Capital that he realised the full extent of the scam and he has been unable to get his money back or contact the woman since.

He reported the incident to police on Sunday who told him such complaints were becoming more and more frequent.

Mr Shoji said: "I know what is suspicious in Japan but I don't know this country well so I didn't know if she was reliable."

Mr Shoji is now staying with a friend of a friend, Purnima Kaura, in Newington while he saves up enough money to pay a deposit on another flat.

Mrs Kaura, 53, said: "I went to look for this flat and it doesn't exist.

"We went to police and they said there is a big hoax going on and also that there's a 99.9 per cent chance that his money wasn't cashed in Edinburgh."

Sophy Silver, a spokeswoman for Gumtree.com, said: "As a non-transactional website, under no circumstances would we advise people to transfer any money to landlords.

"We ask people to apply the same rules they would online as they would offline and that they read the safety rulings on the site warning against handing over money before viewing a property and meeting the landlord.

"We are sorry that this has happened and unfortunately this is the way a small number of unscrupulous people are able to get through to our community."

A police spokeswoman confirmed they were investigating the matter.