A TEST Valley couple has claimed they lost more than £1,000 after sending their house deposit to what they thought was a landlord's bank account, but turned out to be a scammer.

Sabrina Arnold, 20, and Nathan Alexander, 21, were planning to move to Kinver Close, Romsey, after transferring £1,150 to a landlord who they found through the advert website, Gumtree.

However, when Sabrina went to meet the landlord to collect the keys for the property on Saturday, May 30, the woman was nowhere to be found and the house was already occupied.

Now the pair, who live in Lockerley, are aiming to raise £1,500 to help feed their two children and pay the bills.

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Sabrina, who works as a care assistant at Audley Stanbridge Earls, said: "We wanted to move to Romsey because we don't drive and it would have been a lot easier to get to work that way.

"It was a massive shock after it happened because I hear about scams and know they are out there, but this woman made herself seem so convincing.

"The woman even mentioned how other people had let her down before, so that made her seem even more real, and when she emailed the tenancy agreement to us it looked just like our Aster Group agreement."

She added: "We had not seen the property before I went on Saturday because I was working lots of hours each week and had no spare time.

"The woman did not want Nathan to turn up to the house without me either and every time I brought it up she would give a different reason, which made me a bit suspicious."

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Nathan, who works at Audley Stanbridge Earls as a food and beverage employee, said: "I feel a little bit down as we can barely afford to pay the rent because of this; my mum has helped us by buying our shopping as well, since we have two children to feed - Harvey, who is three-years-old and Lara who is two.

"I called the police and they said this is actually happening a lot more than people think, especially in lockdown because some people are trying to get away from bad neighbours or breakups.

"They told us not a lot can be done, there is a 20 percent chance of them finding the culprit and there is no guarantee they can get our £1,150 back."

However, when asked how Nathan feels about people who have already donated to their cause, he said: "It is absolutely amazing as we did not expect to get anything.

"It is nice to know there are still some good people left in the world."

To donate to the couple's cause, visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/liz-riggs?utm_id=106&utm_term=evGArQ9xK&fbclid=IwAR0xAERqImufut-7PdvXb9CpZr4xVNch0H-JlTodYjOBvP0Eg8AXy8-tdQ0.

Hampshire police and Gumtree have been contacted for comment.