Consumers Home Business Home. A rental accommodation scam tries to con you out of your money by pretending to offer you a property or room to rent. You may even be sent a false contract to sign or fake keys to make it more convincing. Scammers will often advertise a rental property at a lower price than normal to draw in potential victims.
Be wary too if the rental property is only advertised through social media advertisements. Another warning sign is being offered a rental without any questions being asked of you, legitimate landlords will want to verify references before considering renting to you. It is common practice for scammers to advertise the same bogus properties in multiple scam attempts, often using similar names and cover stories.
They are also likely to contact you only through email, text or social media messaging. Ask for a phone number to talk to a real person. Make sure you research the advertised property, use online maps to verify it exists, or go and see it in person.
Holiday accommodation, particularly abroad, is an easy target for rental scammers. It can be harder to spot this type of rental scam as the rental address is typically in a different country. A person spots a property they are interested in on a rental platform or online, and gets in contact about potentially renting the property. Once payment goes through, the supposed landlord will disappear with the money and end all communication. Kate and Susan decided to go on a trip to Barcelona. They booked cheap flights, but were having difficulty finding affordable accommodation.
One of them spotted a small apartment advertised on social media close to the city centre and within their budget. The girls contacted the owner who asked them to send a deposit immediately to secure it, explaining demand was huge.
