A scam has been reported to police after tenants were allegedly told to wire deposit payments to a bogus account.

The fraud involves a fake website which appears to be DepositGuard – a part of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme which caters for landlords.

The Residential Landlords Association, which has a tie-up with the TDS and recommends its members use its DepositGuard service, last night warned that tenants looking for rental properties had been contacted by a fraudulent website posing as DepositGuard, using the address www.depositguard-rla.co.uk and asking for payments to be wired to an account to secure the property.

The alert said: “Please note this is a scam and we are doing everything we can to prevent further instances.”

The RLA said that the only legitimate DepositGuard websites are:
www.rla.org.uk/depositguard
www.depositguard.co.uk
www.leedslas.co.uk/depositguard
www.rlaas.co.uk/depositguard

Eye has had no reports that the TDS itself has been targeted by a scam website.

However, agents should be alert on behalf of tenants who may be caught.

Any suspicions should be reported promptly to Action Fraud police here