Internet fraudsters swindled five Napier University international students out of hundreds of pounds by posing as landlords on a flat-finding website.

The students used the Gumtree website to find accommodation in Edinburgh whilst still in their native countries, and were asked to pay the deposit and first month’s rent for the flats upfront. Upon arrival the victims discovered that the rogue landlords were not connected to any property. The housing did not exist, or was not available for let.

Aran Simm, President of Napier Students Association (NSA), who refused to disclose the identites of the victims, told The Journal: “I know that there have been five cases of this scam and it specifically seems to work on international students."

After applying through Gumtree, the students were told that the property was available but that they could not view it. They were asked to pay the first month’s rent and deposit through a Western Union account.

Mr Simms said: "In some instances they are given a lease, which to our knowledge is above board."

Police have been informed of the situation. The NSA and International Student Advisory Service (ISAS) have advised students not to pay any money until they have seen the property to check that it exists and is up to standard.

NSA has warned students specifically about two ‘landlords’ that are advertised on the Gumtree website. The rogue "landlords" have been named as David Schulman and Joshua David Middleton.

A spokesperson from Gumtree told The Journal: “Unfortunately we are aware, despite our best efforts, of this kind of fraud being attempted from time to time on Gumtree. We advise users against the use of Western Union because in our experience these forms of money transfer are favoured by fraudsters."

The spokesperson continued: "We are continuously looking at ways to get these key safety messages out there to even more of our users. We have plans currently in the pipeline to put out more warnings more visibly on the site. These should be appearing shortly."

NSA has recently received confirmation of another fake landlord, Van Marie Rillas, who is operating through a different website, www.accommodationforstudents.com.

Accomodation For Students told The Journal that after investigating the problem, Van Marie Rillas has been removed and blacklisted from its website.

All three of the individuals have been reported to the police and are currently under criminal investigation.

International students, particularly those visiting from the EU face additional difficulties in securing housing because they often do not have access to the information available to Edinburgh students.

Consequently many feel pressured to accept property of a lower standard and dubious nature.

Sigrid Hellberg, an EU student from Sweden studying business at the University of Edinburgh, told The Journal: “I am only studying for one semester at the university and it seems unfair that all non-EU students are guaranteed accommodation even for one semester, yet EU students often have to find their own.”

Ms Hellberg applied for university accommodation and expected that the university would provide her with housing. When her application was declined, Ms Hellberg was left to find accommodation by herself. She said: "It was so late that I would have pretty much accepted anything.”

Ms Hellberg claims that the University of Edinburgh did not provide her with enough assistance in finding accommodation. She said: “There are a lot of unreliable housing websites out there with landlords pretending to have flats available for let. I was just lucky that I managed to find a good flat.”

As a result of the scams, the reputation of Accomodation For Students and Gumtree as safe and reliable websites has been called into question.

Studentflatfinder.com has removed Gumtree from their list of flat-finding websites as a result of security issues.

Josh MacAlister, President of Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) and organiser of studentflatfinder.com, told The Journal: “Edinburgh is still riddled with dodgy landlords who are happy to see their customers ripped off.

"Fortunately, due to better standards and tighter regulations, along with face to face engagement from student bodies there are opportunities to expose them and get them to raise their game. This is an approach which EUSA has taken over the last year and it has shown real results. As a result of our work with Grant Management, the city's largest letting agent is accredited."

Edinburgh-wide students have been working with the local government in an attempt to improve the housing situation in Edinburgh. On Thursday 25 October, Edinburgh’s student unions, city councillors, MSPs, landlords and various accommodation companies convened in Teviot Debating Hall for the EUSA organised event, Student City Forum.

Student housing was discussed at length, with the aim of working to raise the quality, standards and safety of accommodation by supporting NUS Scotland’s Brick by Brick campaign, providing flat-finding booklets and introducing workshops to assist students in finding reputable accommodation.

The impetus was placed on protecting students from dubious landlords and introducing measures that allowed for the greater scrutiny and exposure of ‘dodgy’ proprietors.

Jill Little, Deputy President of NUS Scotland is co-ordinating a tenancy deposit scheme as part of the Brick by Brick campaign, so that students have a mediator for their deposits to prevent unscrupulous landlords exploiting students.

Ms Little told The Journal: “The deposit would not be paid directly to the landlord, it would instead be held by an independent third party. This independent third party would then keep the deposit, and would mediate any disputes between landlord and tenant on the point of moving out."

She continued: "This would mean students in Scotland would have their money protected, and would be much more likely to get the money that was theirs back.”