Property scammer with listed apartment in Newbridge dupes Polish man out of €2,300

A Polish man who was planning on moving to Ireland this weekend to begin working as a software engineer has become the latest person to be scammed by the 'Lloyd Wicker' rental property hoax.

The scam sees unsuspecting people who are looking to rent a property being duped out of large sums of money by the fake landlord, who is asking for deposits to be paid before any keys are handed over. One of the properties listed by the account is on Eyre Street in Newbridge, where an imaginary elderly couple- Lloyd and Martha- will be vacating the apartment for three years.

A woman contacted KildareNow earlier this week to reveal that she was offered the apartment via email, despite never contacting the supposed couple. She ignored the email, saying that she was aware that it was a scam the minute she opened it.

Krzysztof Czopp, a Polish national who is coming to Ireland for work, was coaxed out of €2,300 in his search for an apartment over the internet. He was willing to pay the sum for the property on Francis Street in Dublin because of his need to secure a place to stay before he arrives.

"I was also tricked by the scammer who introduced himself as Lloyd Wicker," Krzysztof told KildareNow.

"He lied to me by emails and I had a chance to talk to him over phone. He used exactly the same story. I’ve fallen for his lies, and when I realised the website he claimed to be managed by tripadvisor.com is scam, it was too late."

"I’ve made a payment for non-existent property on Francis Street in Dublin. I’ve lost 2300 euros. Obviously I contacted the police and as I’m a software engineer. I also started my own investigation. I looked through the sources of his website and I discovered that he’s been using more flat addresses. He’s active and adds more every day," he continued.

Krzysztof has since found out that the Lloyd Wicker account is posting more and more properties each day. So far he has found a total of three properties each in Dublin and Navan, while there are also properties listed in Cavan and Galway by the fraudster.