Students in Edinburgh have once again fallen victim to scams by online fraudsters posing as legitimate landlords on a popular flat-finding website.

A number of Napier University students were conned out of hundreds of pounds when they arrived in the city to find no accommodation waiting for them and their deposits gone.

Foreign students used the website Gumtree.com to find accommodation in Edinburgh while still in their own countries and were asked to wire money for a deposit and first month’s rent to "landlords" via Western Union.

Upon arriving in Edinburgh, the students were shocked to find that the properties they had paid to rent often did not exist or were unavailable for rent and that the landlords were impossible to contact. Despite reporting the matter to police, most have been unable to retrieve their money.

Chee Ho Wan, a spokesperson for Gumtree.com, told The Journal: “Fraudulent activity of this nature is a serious matter and we regret that any of our users have been affected by it. Gumtree employs a series of preventative measures alongside an education programme in order to create a safe environment for its users.”

Gumtree.com has been associated with landlord scams in the past, leading Napier Students' Association (NSA) to remove the website from its list of recommended sites for student accommodation. This follows the decision last year by Studentflatfinder.com to drop Gumtree from its own list of trusted partners amidst ongoing security concerns.

No representative of NSA was available for further comment.

NSA have warned students to be extremely vigilant when searching for new accommodation. A statement on their website advises potential tenants to ensure they see a property in person before handing over a deposit and asks students to warn friends from abroad about the scams if they are considering studying in the city in future.

While Lothian and Borders Police have received a number of complaints from overseas students who handed over substantial deposits on property only to find it did not exist upon arriving in the city, their response so far has been limited.

A police spokesman outlined the difficulties of prosecuting someone for this kind of offence: "Given that most of the victims of these crimes do not have an Edinburgh address and that the accommodation they pay for invariably does not exist, there are issues over jurisdiction for dealing with the enquiries in that there is no tangible connection to this force area. People who live outwith Edinburgh but have been affected should therefore contact their local police.”

However, he added: "If a victim of a fraudulent landlord claim does have an address within the Lothian and Borders area, then a crime report can be compiled and a full investigation carried out."

Chee Ho Wan claimed that measures were in place to eradicate phony landlords: “We also have a dedicated team to react quickly to any reports from our users of suspicious activity, and they work closely with the police and other relevant organisations as necessary.”

Last year The Journal reported that two landlords, named as David Schulman and Joshua David Middleton, were deliberately targeting students via Gumtree and had succeeded in fraudulently obtaining thousands of pounds. While many students came forward with information, and the pair were brought to justice, it is highly likely both names are false.

In April of this year the matter was brought to wider public attention when the Edinburgh Evening News ran a story about Jun-ya Shoji, a 28-year old postgraduate student from Japan. Shoji lost over £700 when he fell victim to a complex scam in which a bogus landlord produced scans of faked identification documents and photos of the interior of the flat to convince him to pay a deposit in advance.

When Shoji went to the police, he was informed that they had received a large number of similar complaints and that it was likely that the money was being transferred to somewhere outside the Edinburgh area.

Gumtree suggest that students looking for accommodation in Edinburgh view the property before handing over money for a deposit. They advise never to wire money or provide personal or bank details to others over the internet. The website encourages users to familiarise themselves with common online scams in the hope that raised awareness will reduce the chances of falling victim to fraud.