Patrick Cooke
Foreigners duped in phantom flat scam
Conman's whereabouts unknown
The passport scan sent by 'Jamie Day'.
Foreigners using a travel website to find rented accommodation in Malta before they arrive are being duped into paying deposits for non-existent apartments, The Sunday Times has learnt.
Rooms for rent in seemingly plush apartments in Sliema and St Julian's are being offered for competitive prices by a user in the popular Malta 'Housing and Rentals' section of the website justlanded.com, which offers advice and listings to expatriates worldwide.
When would-be travellers e-mail from abroad to say they are interested, the user, who identifies himself as 'Jamie Day', requests a deposit via Western Union or Moneygram, but ceases contact upon receiving payment. The scam was brought to the attention of The Sunday Times by Carolina Seez, a 22-year-old German, and Marian Guyomarc'h, a 21-year-old French woman, who now share an apartment in Swieqi. They did not know each other previously and only discovered they were victims of the same scam while chatting.
Ms Seez showed this newspaper 35 e-mails she exchanged with Jamie Day from July 9 to 28, 2009. She made contact after seeing an advertisement on justlanded.com for a room in an apartment close to Balluta Bay. In the second e-mail she received, she was asked for a €50 deposit via Western Union. Over the course of the e-mail conversations, she received repeated reassurances and was even sent a scan of what the advertiser said was his British passport. This showed a man named Jamie Paul Day, born in Grimsby on September 23, 1978.
When she eventually sent the money on July 24, the man ceased all contact. He would have had to identify himself as Jamie Day when collecting the cash.
"I just felt so cheated. I was about to move to a foreign country and it made me wonder if all people in Malta were like that. Thankfully, I now know they're not," Ms Seez said.
Ms Guyomarc'h showed The Sunday Times similar e-mail exchanges with someone using the same name, which began on November 7. She has a receipt for the €70 she sent as a deposit via Western Union on November 24, but again the man cut off contact.
Posing as a female Spanish teenager on the verge of moving to Malta, The Sunday Times last week found a room advertised on justlanded.com in a modern-looking apartment in Windsor Street, Sliema, for €170 per month.
After sending an e-mail expressing interest, a reply came from 'Jamie', who asked for a €70 deposit via Moneygram. When asked for identification, he sent a scan of a passport with the name and image of 'Jamie Paul Day'. All contact ceased when it was suggested that a friend already in Malta could pay the deposit in person, while an attempt to visit the address in Windsor Street revealed the apartment did not exist.
A 31-year-old Briton named Jamie Paul Day was convicted of credit card fraud in Malta last November and given a three-year probation order. Ms Seez and Ms Guyomarc'h said they attempted to report the scam together at St Julian's police station last Monday, but were informed they had to call Inspector Trevor Micallef, who had arraigned Mr Day last November.
According to the two women, they tried to call Inspector Micallef last Wednesday but there was no answer.
The Sunday Times contacted Insp. Micallef and offered to hand over its exchanges together with the exchanges of the two women. However, he said the women had to report the crime at the police station where the incident took place - even though it was in cyberspace.
Although Mr Day is on a three-year probation order, the police said his whereabouts were unknown.
"He is always changing his address so I can't know where he lives," the inspector said.
According to Simon Lynch, managing director of Just Landed, which is based in Spain, at least five similar complaints related to Malta have been reported to the company since September, and the accounts used have been blocked.
The perpetrator appears to be the same individual, who uses different e-mail addresses and internet protocols, and offers different apartments, but always identifies himself as 'Jamie Day', Mr Lynch said.
His exchange of e-mails with The Sunday Times was sent from an internet cafe in Qawra. Mr Lynch confirmed the perpetrator has been active in the past few days and appears to still be in Malta.
The case appears to be "atypical" according to Mr Lynch, because the perpetrator asks for relatively small amounts, and fraud on the website in other countries, although rare, is usually committed by organised criminal networks based in Africa, not by an individual residing in the country.
The website contains advice about staying safe online and warns users not to send money via Western Union. It uses automated and manual checks to identify fraudulent advertisements, "but when a fraudster is acting in the same way as a real user it is very difficult to catch every instance of this type of crime," Mr Lynch said.
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Joe E Galea
Jan 19th 2010, 07:55
Never trust anyone who asks for a money transfer through Western Union. As soon as you see Western Union on a website just close the website. Through Western Union you have no protection as a customer unlike when paying thorugh credit card. Neither Pay Pal is safe for that case as if you made a payment to someone through Paypal and the individual retrieves all the money from his account, Pay Pal can do nothing to pay you back.
Please show us the face of this scum.
Roderick Micallef
Jan 19th 2010, 03:54
It is obvious that the local authorities are not doing enough to stop this person from doing this scam over and over again. It seems that the pattern is always the same so it's relatively easy to catch the culprit.
If at least the IP address used in his email transactions with both the victims and the bank then the user should be easily traced. At least the records will go back on the date and time he was in the internet cafe' and if the internet cafe' keeps proper records of it's own customers or at least they have CCTV system the police can go back at the time the culprit is tracked down and the surveillance video can be watched and they will know who this person actually is. I would guess that this ID is either stolen or forged and not his real ID otherwise it would be pretty dumb.
Part of the fault lies also on the victims themselves, ifsomeone wants to purchase a product or service and sees that a similar product or service costs MUCH less then most of the time usually something is wrong, usually when it's too cheap something is not right!
ray azzopardi
Jan 18th 2010, 09:42
this is a very common scam. it happenned to my daughter when looking for student accom in rome. we never paid any money as i insisted on an account and IBAN number for a bank transfer. i also contacted the real owner (found in facebook) of the name the scammer was using, who confirmed that she had her identity stolen. she had informed scotland yard about her i.d. theft and even interpol got involved (as the crime was being committed in various countries (in our case italy, u.k., , malta and amsterdam.) the internet is a modern miracle, but one has to be very care of pitfalls that do exists.
M Cristiano
Jan 17th 2010, 21:03
The exact same thing is happening in London with flat sharing on a lot of British websites. They ask you for details and for full payment through Western Union, using passport scans as 'evidence' of their genuineness.
Most financial scams all involve Western Union so beware. I know people who have also received emails from people on their contact lists saying they are in trouble abroad and need money urgently, again through Western Union.
Best thing is spend a bit more and play it safe with accredited web sites / hotels.
E. Azzopardi
Jan 17th 2010, 18:01
Very bad for tourism. Where were those who should have got this from the start? All those endless authorities and associations. These things should not happen on such a small rock.
Who is checking all these websites? Nobody it seems. Let us wake up and protect our tourism.
Charles Sammut (NY)
Jan 17th 2010, 15:10
If one is asked to use only Western Union or a Moneygramme it should always raise a Red Flag. I find it disgusting that the Police Dept failed to take action after being tipped about the scam.
Timothy Guntrip
Jan 17th 2010, 13:52
Perhaps if we could actually see his face - we might be able to know if we have ever come across this person. As mentioned before, it could be a false photo, but unless we can see how can we ever be sure?
Steve Sant
Jan 17th 2010, 13:46
That is why we Estate Agents insist that people are educated in looking for those agencies that are members of the FEDERATION OF ESTATE AGENTS and The Chamber of Commerce Real Estate Section. Without this sign of approval one has to be very careful and check the security and status of any agency, or website. There are so many bogus websites and fake/phishing type websites that unless one does a proper research then you will get caught out. There are so many famous names that have similar looking websites, and so many people get caught out, its a jungle out there. So i am afraid this will not be the first or the last website to con people out of their money.
C Falzon
Jan 17th 2010, 12:35
It is quite likely (or maybe almost certain) that neither the name nor the photograph is of the perpetrator and that the perpetrator is neither British nor Maltese. It is a very common scam which like most others is probably being run from somewhere in East Africa, most probably Nigeria.
The Moneygram or Western Union payment can usually be picked up anywhere in the world without as much as an ID document.
The name, and also the addresses of apartments would have been trawled from online newspapers.
It could of course be that he did use his own name and photograph, in which case he should be locked up, not for committing a crime but for being excessively stupid.
Jeremy Lanfranco
Jan 17th 2010, 11:58
Now Jamie Paul Day will surely try to get away from the island after seeing this report!
C Cassar
Jan 17th 2010, 11:45
Well ms Seez, you quoted:
""I just felt so cheated. I was about to move to a foreign country and it made me wonder if all people in Malta were like that. "
Why was this? You clearly stated and it was shown that this person was British (as per his passport copy). Surely your quote should have stated:
"I just felt so cheated. I was about to move to a foreign country and it made me wonder if all people in the UK were like that."
It looks like this chap is one of the very many from the UK that are carrying out illegal activities in Malta. It's about time that the government/police/local authorities used many more plain clothes officilas to catch those involved in such scams, including the many time share touts that litterthe Sliema/St Julians/Bugibba promenades. Also, large fines and forced closures of the hotels that are aiding/hosting the time share heavy handed "sales" sessions for those duped into attending.
David fenech
Jan 17th 2010, 11:31
How is it possible that the authorities/ the Police know of and allow this criminal activity to take place? Why is this person not apprehended through the surveillance of the identified Western Union account when a withdrawal is taking place? Am I missing something?
Charles Sammut
Jan 17th 2010, 11:08
@ R Mifsud
It might not be his real face. He could easily have substituted the photo using Photoshop or a similar utility.
When will people learn not to use Western Union or Moneygram for such deals? It is like sending cash. In fact, when someone asks for such transactions, you can assume that it is likely a scam.
Bob Pritchard
Jan 17th 2010, 11:07
How is it that the police do not know his whereabouts? Doesn't he have to report regularly to a probation officer? Doesn't he have to keep keep his probation officer/police fully informed of his whereabouts..isn't this a condition of his probation, breach of which means incarceration?
R.Mifsud
Jan 17th 2010, 10:51
Show his face and I am sure the public will cooperate with police.