There have been various attempts to extract money from property owners by fraudulent activity on French Connections and other similar websites.

We wish to heighten your awareness by advising of the kind of scam which is currently being received by some of our advertisers.

A common scam is where a property owner might be approached by an enquirer who is seeking a longer-than-usual let and after various communications with the property owner, sends a cheque (or sends a bankers draft) for an amount over and beyond the agreed rental sum.  Whilst most cases seem to occur with a longer than usual let, be aware regular lets  of 1 or 2 weeks may also be requested.

You will be asked to deposit the ’rental’ cheque in your bank and once cleared, you will be asked to return the ‘difference’ between the rental sum and the amount paid by your ‘client’, to a third party i.e. an ‘agent’ or other contact.
This instruction would never be given by a genuine enquirer, and you should cease corresponding with this ‘client’  in this event.

The UK banking system takes 3 days for clearance of a cheque.  It may take 4 days or more for the bank to realise that the issuer does not have the funds to support the cheque and the bank will then withdraw the sum from the property owner’s bank account.

This advice is issued  as a guide in good faith by French Connections.

French Connections are not accountable for any adverse experience. Please consult with your bank if you have any doubts.

You can read more about this type of scam at the Metropolitan Police website and at Wikipedia.

We do have security measures in place to try to limit scam emails via our enquiry form but these can never be 100% efective. If you think you have received a scam email enquiry then please let us know via the contact us link (select helpdesk) so that we can screen for it in future.