The victims typically responded to property rental listings online, mostly on Facebook but also on Carousell and rental advertisement sites.
They would generally interact with the scammers through WhatsApp using the contact numbers published in the property rental listing.
During their exchange, the scammers would impersonate a legitimate property agent and convince the victims of their credentials by sending pictures of property agent passes, business cards, pictures and videos or virtual tours of the rental property.
However, the contact numbers provided would differ from the actual contact numbers of the legitimate property agent registered with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA).
When the victims asked if they could view the property, the scammers would claim that there was high demand for the property and pressure them into making deposits to secure the property.
The victims would discover that they had been scammed when the fake agents ceased contact with them or when they reached out to the legit agents who were impersonated by the scammers.
In some cases, the victims were asked to meet up with the “personal assistants” of the fake property agents who would help facilitate their viewing of the property.
After the viewing, the victims would be told to provide their personal particulars for the tenancy agreement and to make payments for the rentals through bank transfers or PayNow.
But the scammer or “personal assistants” would cease contact with the victims after receiving payments. At least 144 people lost $917,000 to this method of scamming between July 2023 and January 2024.
The police advise verifying the legitimacy of a property listing by the following means:
- Do not rely on Facebook or Carousell listings or the assurances of the scammer over WhatsApp. Potential renters should verify the identity of the property agents renting out the properties against the CEA Public Register before dealing with them. Check whether the phone number in the property listing belongs to a property agent registered with CEA. To do so, you should key in the advertised phone number on the CEA Public Register at www.cea.gov.sg/aceas/public-register to perform a search. If the search does not lead to a CEA-registered property agent’s profile page, it means that the phone number is not registered with CEA and is likely a scam, even if the property agent’s name and registration number can be found in the CEA Public Register. Contact the property agent only at the phone number registered with CEA.
- Contact the property agent’s agency from trusted sources (such as the CEA Public Register or the agency’s website and not the number given by the Facebook or Carousell advertisement) to verify the authenticity of the listing.
- Potential renters should view the properties in person and check that they are dealing with the actual CEA-registered property agent (not their unqualified assistant) in order to safeguard themselves. Tenants and occupiers should know that under the CEA practice guidelines, property agents are supposed to meet you face-to-face to verify your identity for all residential rental transactions.
- Property agents are not permitted to demand and collect payments to view or rent properties. Payment of rental deposits or rent should be made directly to the landlord using verifiable payment modes such as crossed cheques and bank transfers and must be paid to the landlord’s bank accounts, not the “personal assistants” bank account or unverified PayNow numbers.
- Cops descended on a raucous Beverly Hills party mansion amid reports of a home invasion on Friday
- The mansion has hosted near-nightly raves, plaguing celebrity neighbors including Lebron James and Seth McFarlane
- No charges were brought following Friday’s incident, despite growing calls from locals to bring the relentless partying to an end
A dramatic police raid descended on a raucous Beverly Hills ‘squatting’ mansion that has been plaguing its celebrity neighborhood with nightly rave parties.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to reports of a home invasion shortly after 3pm Friday at the $4.3 million mansion, the site of a number of out-of-control parties that began in October.
Despite counting Lebron James and Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane as neighbors, police had been seemingly powerless to stop the continuing raves – until Friday’s incident reportedly included several suspects armed with a knife.
It appeared that one of the all-day parties was going on at the time, with a number of guests seen handcuffed and lined up on an outdoor patio after cops breached the home.
All detainees were later released, and no charges were brought, according to KTLA.
The mansion was owned by alleged fraudster and suspected killer Dr Munir Uwaydah, who fled the US in 2013 amid an investigation into the murder of his girlfriend.
He had been accused of swindling Medicare out of millions of dollars, and was last reportedly living in Beirut.
The property was repossessed by Uwaydah’s mortgage lender and is currently on the market for over $4.5 million, but has since been taken over by ‘squatters’ who claim they are the valid tenants.
DailyMail.com revealed this week that the suspected hard-partying squatters include a man accused of beating his ex-girlfriend, and a frequent visitor was also involved in an alleged multi-million-dollar student loans scam.
Since October, the sprawling estate has hosted wild, near-nightly parties that often don’t start until 2am.
The ‘squatters’ are even advertising rooms in the four-bed, 5,857 sq ft home on Booking.com for $300 per night and charge hundreds of party guests $75 entry fees at the gate.
The ritzy neighborhood – which also includes billionaire Jeff Bezos and John Legend – has complained ever since over the bashes, which have previously resulted in assaults, fires and arrests.
As first reported by DailyMail.com earlier this month, a relentless week of parting to begin the year resulted in the swanky cul-de-sac becoming overran with trash.
Scenes on the streets outside the mansion included nitrous oxide canisters inhaled by partygoers from balloons to get high, crushed Solo cups, pools of vomit, and condom packets.
Before the raves ruined the picturesque area, Lebron James picked a site just a stone’s throw away as the site of his ‘dream home’, and previously demolished a lavish $36.8 million mansion on the spot to make room.
James’s house manager, who asked not to be named, told DailyMail.com earlier this month that he had to keep security guards at the NBA star’s building site 24/7 in part because of the squatters’ parties.
‘I’ve heard from my security team up there about all the crazy cars, crazy parties at night, how we’re not able to get into our property sometimes because they’re blocking the street with their cars, and just the nuisance at night with the loud music and people floating out to the streets,’ he said.
‘It’s one of the reasons we have security 24/7. Otherwise, there’s no need for me to have security there 24/7 because it’s just a construction site.’
Before Friday’s raid, questions had been raised over why local police seemed powerless to bring the disruptive parties to an end.
One neighbor, Rick Rankin, told DailyMail.com that police were unable to evict the residents because they had obtained drivers licenses with the property address, and even produced a rental agreement, which the property’s current listing agent insists is fake.
‘The officers told me the house was trashed,’ Rankin, a 65-year-old technology consultant, said. ‘It’s like they’re hoarders. The garage is full of s**t.
‘Young women have been seen coming and going in and out of the house at all hours.
‘When people leave they’re stumbling. You know when someone’s high. It’s not a drunken thing. They’re jittery, nervous, eyes spinning.
‘One night they had a party I went around and there were at least 50 cars. These are one-way, narrow streets, but they just plop their cars down and get out.’
While no charges were brought as a result of Friday’s raid, the LAPD has reportedly opened a narcotics case related to drugs photographed by private investigator Mark Ebner.
Ebner was hired by the property’s legal owner and the realtor attempting to sell it, leading him to spend several nights outside the mansion watching the raucous antics from the street.
‘If you stake out at 8am after a party night, it’s like Night of the Living Dead up there. These people are zombies. They’re just completely whacked out by the binge they’ve been on,’ he said.
‘There are nitrous canisters that litter the street, broken glass, things like that.’
At the start of the month, Ebner photographed a bag of pill capsuled in the backseat of an attendee’s Porsche 911, which was subsequently towed by police.
The pills and other potential evidence of drug use around the house has prompted LAPD to refer the case to its Narcotics division.
Ebner said he has also handed over all his files on the accused squatters and their parties to the department’s Major Crimes unit.
Despite the alleged trouble stemming from the mansion, the ‘squatters’ have made no secret of their antics.
They appeared to list the home on Booking.com as a vacation rental, sharing photos from inside the four-bed, six-bathroom home with a pool and bar – as well as an LED-lit disco room.
The Booking.com listing for the house calls it the ‘Beverly Hills Lodge’, and offers a room for four people for $300 per night, including a ’60-min massage’.
‘At the lodge guests are welcome to use a spa center,’ the listing said. ‘A casino and a children’s playground, are available for guests at Beverly Hills Lodge.’
Parties at the house are even being advertised on events website get-in.com, showing start times as late as midnight and a $75 cover charge, which the organizers claim was ‘for the nova festival victims from the massacre on October 7’, a reference to the Hamas attacks on Israel.
The LAPD has faced a number of callouts to the mansion, with app Citizen recording incidents including a man in a bucket hat assaulting someone with a metal box on January 13, a battery incident on December 2, and a reported burglary on November 23.
An aide for councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky told neighbors in an email that ‘LAPD is working with the City Attorney’s office to file a Trespass Authorization Form so they have the authority to remove squatters from the site.’
LAPD Senior Lead Officer James Allen, who told DailyMail.com he was leading the investigation, said the controversial residents claimed to cops that they were friends of the former owner, and had been invited by him to live in the home.
But he added that the current ownership of the home is uncertain, has been the subject of a bankruptcy court case, and that the home is entering foreclosure.
‘I guess he left his friends in the house. I guess we can say they’re squatters. But they’re squatters to the owner that’s in foreclosure to the bank,’ Allen said.
‘We’re working on a plan with the bank to evict the individuals because there’s no one at this point to evict them and say they’re there illegally.
‘I’ve submitted it to the City Attorney. I’m citing the home every time we get a radio call for a party.
‘They’re using the home outside of its original purpose, illegally.’
Despite police investigations into the home, there is growing resentment from locals over a lack of action to actually stop the issue.
Jeff Scapa, a private mortgage lender, told DailyMail.com he loaned $3.8million to the current owner, a company called MDRCA Properties LLC.
Scapa said a court ruled he could foreclose on the home, but that process was frozen when MDRCA filed for bankruptcy last month.
Scapa said he discovered squatters had taken over the home in October last year, and shared videos with DailyMail.com he took of one man admitting he started moving his belongings into the house ‘the first week of October’.
He said that he and MDRCA offered the alleged squatters $25,000 cash to leave, but they declined.
Scapa said he was frustrated with police and the LA courts for not evicting the alleged unlawful residents already.
‘Everybody knows this guy is not supposed to be there, and they do nothing,’ he said.
IT looked like the window of any other student letting agency.
But the houses and flats for rent in businessman Jeremy Southgate’s firm were fake images and pictures cut from magazines.
The modest agency was the front for a multi-million pound cannabis empire, which the trained solicitor ran with the help of Albanians smuggled into Britain in the back of trucks.
One of Britain’s most brazen criminals, Southgate was so cocky that he got government grants to insulate houses where foreign ‘gardeners’ looked after his cannabis farms.
He managed to get £100,000 worth of Covid loans to help keep his dummy business open during the pandemic.
Southgate, 63, also created ghost tenants to cover council tax bills despite raking in as much as £11.4million a year from his drugs enterprise.
He was so confident he’d never be caught that he stole electricity from dozens of neighbours – and once sent in a team to dig up a road to bypass a meter.
Cops in Hull who caught up with Southgate – whose astonishing double life is more reminiscent of a character from the drug-fuelled TV drama Breaking Bad – labelled him “arrogant and greedy”.
DC Karen Smith, who arrested him, said: “He was a very wealthy man who owned 72 properties outright, a boat and assets including a nursing home.
“None of this was done for need, but for greed.
“I’ve never met anyone quite like Southgate. In interviews he was evasive, arrogant and wouldn’t answer questions, often going off on tangents.
“This was a major drugs operation and the cannabis would have been disseminated into kilos and distributed nationally.”
Stashed thousands on boat
The story of Southgate’s illicit empire comes as new figures laid bare the drug crisis gripping the nation.
A record 69 tons of cannabis were seized last year – equivalent to a street value of £2billion.
Illustrating the sheer amount of money drug lords can turn over, cops found more than £50,000 in cash on a £140,000 boat Southgate owned called Billy Blue on Hull’s marina.
They also found £324,000 in notes hidden under a bed in the house where his girlfriend lived – and discovered Southgate had just banked £125,000.
He even owned a dilapidated hotel called The Pines in the city where police found £307,000 worth of cannabis growing in several rooms.
Twelve Albanians caught growing, distributing and selling Southgate’s cannabis have since been deported – but only after vain attempts to remain in the UK.
They claimed to be living in fear after being trafficked into the UK but police revealed they had been free to visit prostitutes, while one went on holiday to Milan.
DC Smith, of Humberside Police, said: “They told me they had willingly come into the UK, smuggled into the country in trucks.
“They then tried to claim they were victims of slavery but I was able to prove they had voluntarily made their way into Britain and were here willingly.
“They were drinking Hennessy on Hull marina, using the services of prostitutes, driving cars and going about their business. One even took a holiday to Milan so they were hardly locked into modern day slavery.
“We don’t want to discourage any genuine victims from reporting, but in this case these men were trying to manipulate the system.”
Detectives launched Operation Swale following a 2021 drugs bust in a house in Hull where a receipt for extension leads, galvanised steel, electrical tape and plug sockets was found – items used to set up cannabis farms.
When officers checked CCTV at the hardware store where the goods were bought, they discovered Albanian cousins Dardan Mrishaj and Evris Mirshaj travelling in and out of Hull from their homes in Peterborough.
Cops started trailing the pair who were meeting with Southgate and other associates, sitting outside coffee shops for ‘daily briefings’ after the first Covid lockdown in the summer of 2021.
Estate agents fraud
It wasn’t long before detectives realised Southgate’s letting agency, called Anderson Estates, was a total fraud. It was being run by another criminal called Florjan Kasaj, 41, who would occasionally open it.
He told police he was never paid by Southgate and was helping people with universal credit and asylum claims.
But Kasaj was really managing Southgate’s properties and instructing the cousins to build cannabis farms.
The now-deported team of illegal Albanians were hired to look after the plants, which made the gang up to £2.4million each crop.
But the cash wasn’t enough for Southgate, who applied for government grants to insulate his run-down properties and received £100,000 in fraudulent Covid loans to run his property business, called Amazing Lets, and a care home he owned in East Riding.
It emerged in court that he deliberately bought houses with poor energy ratings to apply for grants.
Cannabis seizures hit record high
BORDER cops seized 69 tonnes of marijuana last year – the highest amount ever.
The extent of Britain’s drug epidemic was laid bare after the Home Office also revealed that 3.3 tonnes of cocaine was blocked from coming into the UK.
The amount of weed seized by police and Border force officers doubled year-on-year from 35 tonnes in 2022.
Around a third of people in England and Wales aged between 16 and 59 have admitted to using cannabis at least one point in their lives, according to Statistica.
Authorities discovered 92 tonnes of illegal drugs in total – the largest amount for 18 years.
It’s a crime to possess, grow, distribute or sell cannabis and being caught comes with a maximum sentence of five years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.
Being convicted of producing and supplying the Class B drug carries a jail term of up to 14 years.
Police can issue a warning or on-the-spot fine if you’re caught with small amounts – generally less than one ounce.
Many forces take a relaxed view to personal use but prosecution rates vary across the country. Durham Police say they will no longer target recreational users while Cornwall and Devon have a prosecution rate of 15 per cent.
Cannabis products said to aid sleep or relaxation can be bought over the counter but they do not contain the part of the plant that makes you high, THC.
Doctors can prescribe medical cannabis, with higher amounts of cannabidiol for sufferers of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and cancer patients sick with chemotherapy.
Police searched 25 of Southgate’s property and found cannabis in 19.
They also discovered fake ID papers for unemployed tenants who never existed so the local authority would foot the bill for council tax.
Incredibly, he sent a team of ‘workmen’ to one property to drill into the road outside and bypass the electricity supply, before laying the tarmac back down.
Southgate trained as a solicitor in 1994 but found himself on the other side of the legal fence when was convicted at Hull Crown Court earlier this month.
He was found guilty of two counts to produce Class B drugs, money laundering and two counts of fraud by false representation.
Evris Mrishaj, 25, of Peterborough, and cousin Dardan Mrishaf, 37, of Hull, and Florjan Kasaj, 41, also of Hull, were convicted of conspiracy to produce class B drugs.
All four will be sentenced in February.
Southgate, originally from Brighton, has never revealed his real home address – even in court.
DC Smith said he engaged in “Albanian gang tactics” to hide his tracks, failing to register his modest 2009 plate Astra.
She said: “We knew he owned a lot of properties, but it took hard work to connect them to him through police records and tenuous links.
“He did everything he could to evade the law at every step of the way. The case didn’t feature a lot of text messages you’d usually find in this sort of conspiracy because he had daily briefings outside coffee houses.”
She revealed that even after his arrest in December 2022, the kingpin bought another house and tried to set up a new cannabis farm before cops shut him down.
Now the man who once set up a fake estate agents will soon find himself a tenant – of a prison cell.