Mide Awosika arrived at her new flat in Poplar, east London, on moving day expecting to collect the keys. Instead, she found a queue of strangers outside the same door – all with the same story.
The 20-year-old student and her two flatmates had paid a £12,000 deposit to rent a four-bedroom property advertised on Zoopla and OpenRent. But as group after group turned up, each clutching confirmation of a tenancy for the same flat, Awosika realised the scale of the deception. Nine other people were trying to move in too.
“Student Mide Awosika paid £12,000 deposit for a flat, only to discover 23 others were also tricked into paying for the same property.”
Awosika set up a WhatsApp group to track what was happening. Since then, she said, 23 people have contacted her claiming to have been targeted in the same way, all linked to the same property and the same letting agent, who identified himself as Derrick Fringe.
“The viewing was rushed,” Awosika told the BBC. Fringe told them there was stiff competition and they needed to pay immediately to secure it. She handed over three months' rent upfront, plus holding and security deposits. Just before the August move-in date, Fringe said the existing tenants had refused to leave and bailiffs were needed. Then contact stopped.
Among those who joined Awosika’s WhatsApp group were Freazy Warr, 24, and Nirrhit Pal, 23, who with three other flatmates transferred £7,200 for the same property. “As the moving van was pulling into the road, we were told by a friend to cancel immediately because two other groups were already waiting,” Warr said. “My lease was ending and I was terrified I’d have nowhere to live.”
Two young professionals working in nearby Canary Wharf paid a £9,460 deposit. Satchit Warade and another tenant, who asked for her name to be withheld, said they were rushed into the viewing with the agent saying they had 45 minutes to get there.
Neither Fringe nor the landlord responded to the BBC’s questions.
The scale of rental fraud is growing. Figures from Report Fraud show that in 2021 there were 4,642 cases reported, leaving victims £7.2m out of pocket. By 2025, 4,178 cases were reported in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, costing those affected £14.5m – almost double the losses.
“There are so few affordable properties,” Warr said. “Students and people without a lot of money are pushed online, where it’s harder to know who to trust.”