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Home / New Zealand

Property investor Nick Gentle impersonated by scammer: Fiji-based man lures victims with fake rental agreement

Ben Leahy
By Ben Leahy
Reporter·NZ Herald·
16 Sep, 2023 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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Property investor Nick Gentle is warning renters to be careful after a scammer claimed his company was the landlord in a bogus rental agreement. Photo / Andrew Warner

Property investor Nick Gentle is warning renters to be careful after a scammer claimed his company was the landlord in a bogus rental agreement. Photo / Andrew Warner

A Fiji-based scammer has impersonated one of New Zealand’s best-known property investors in a bid to steal money, his victims claim.

Investor Nick Gentle said the scammer sent an Auckland rental agreement to a prospective tenant that stated one of Gentle’s companies was the landlord.

But Gentle has nothing to do with the property or tenancy.

He was shocked when the prospective tenant contacted him to ask if it was a real rental, he told the Herald.

“It was quite confronting to see your name and business being forged,” he said.

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“I was angry that people would do this to families, migrants and immigrants.

“I’ve lived in another country, and I know what it’s like to be an immigrant.”

Gentle said he wants to raise awareness about potential rental scams, saying he doesn’t know if it is a one-off case of his company’s name being illegally used or if there are “50 contracts with us lying around in them”.

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Fijian Darshina Devi, who contacted Gentle, said the fake rental agreement was part of an immigration scam.

Her family wanted to send Devi’s 21-year-old brother to New Zealand to work in a restaurant where he could build his skills and save cash before returning home to Fiji.

She said her brother went for a job interview in Fiji where a man promised him employment in New Zealand and help getting a visa.

The job also came with an Auckland rental on Avenue Rd in Otahuhu, the man said.

Devi was then emailed a bogus rental agreement, listing Gentle’s company as landlord and a deregistered company with no links to him or the property as the “guarantor”.

Devi said her family paid the scammer $2375 before they began to realise they were being conned.

That’s when she contacted Gentle to ask whether the rental was legitimate.

The scammer has since gone to ground and is not taking her calls, Devi said.

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She said her family has reported him to Fijian police and would also like to see if New Zealand Police could take action, given she believes the man is also a Kiwi resident.

“Pretending to be something you are not is wrong … and we want it to stop,” Devi said.

The man Devi identified as the scammer did not reply to Herald requests for comment.

Aucklanders say this man scammed them with a fake rental earlier this year, but "Ben" from England says he has no idea what the claims are about.
Aucklanders say this man scammed them with a fake rental earlier this year, but "Ben" from England says he has no idea what the claims are about.

Gentle – who co-founded a property management company – said he has also heard of people pretending to rent out properties by posing as representatives of the real owners, taking deposits before trying to disappear with the money.

Gentle said renters planning to rent through a private landlord should make sure they deal with or make contact with the property’s genuine owners before paying a deposit.

Otherwise, they should deal with a property manager, who can be easily contacted through an office or can be verified as a legitimate business.

Still, it was not easy for people moving to a new country to do these checks when unfamiliar with how things work locally, he said.

It comes after an Englishman named “Ben” was alleged this year to have stolen thousands of dollars in deposits from house hunters in a rental scam before fleeing the country.

The man showed a series of prospective tenants through an apartment in Airedale St in Auckland’s central city in April.

One of his victims was Chilean immigrant, eight-month-pregnant Salome Gonzalez, who lost $2250 paid as a deposit.

Gonzalez and another victim said they responded to an ad for the apartment on Facebook.

A young man with an English accent, who called himself Benjamin Earl, then showed them through the property and promised them the tenancy if a bond and one week’s rent was paid.

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