What is a Home/Room Rental Scam?
Scammers offer a room or house for rent and use high-pressure tactics to get victims to pay the rent in advance. In these cases, the scammers are not authorised to rent out the property or the property may not even exist.
In another variation of this scam, the scammers pretend to be interested foreign tenants looking to rent a place. They will claim to have made payment for the deposit, after which the victims will receive fake emails from PayPal asking for a fee before the payment can be released to them. In some cases, the scammers may ask the landlords to help them pay their movers’ fees.
- Online deals that are too good to be true. Even if a listing appears legitimate, it could still be a scam.
- Photos of a property that does not closely match the description of the unit.
- Potential tenants who offer to rent the apartment/room without seeing it first.
- PayPal emails requesting an admin fee to be paid before an amount can be released to you.
- Ask to visit the property to verify that it exists.
- Ensure the person you deal with is the rightful owner of the unit or an accredited real estate agent.
- Search for identical ads placed elsewhere. This will help you discover if the listing is a well-known scam.
- Do not pay rental deposits or rent to the salesperson. Payments should be made directly to the property owner and only after all parties have signed the tenancy agreement.
Always read the contents of an email and check the sender's email address to ensure that it is from a trusted source.
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