Spotting a fake listing

Fake listings are built to look like the flat you have been hoping for. They rarely have one obvious flaw; they have several small ones. Read each listing against the seven checks below. One odd detail may be innocent. Two or three together should make you walk away.

This guide is about the listing. For the wider picture, including the five rules that stop nearly all scams, read avoiding rental scams.

The price

Start here, because the price is the bait. Compare the rent with the typical range for that city and size of flat. Every city page shows current rent ranges with a date and a source.

• Well below the range for the area, size and furnishing is the single strongest warning sign. A real landlord in a hard market has no reason to charge half the going rate.
• Bills “all included” at a low rent in a city where that is unusual is another hint.
• A price that changes during the conversation, or a “special price if you pay today”, is pressure, not a bargain.

The photos

• Reverse image search every listing you are serious about. Tools such as Google Lens, Bing Visual Search and TinEye will show whether the same photos appear elsewhere: on a holiday rental site, on another portal under another address or in another city.
• Stock or staged photos that look like a hotel or a catalogue, with no personal items, no views from windows and no photos of the building, are suspicious.
• Different flats in one set. Look at floors, sockets, window frames and ceiling heights. If the kitchen and the bedroom clearly come from two different buildings, they probably do.
• No outside shots. Real listings often show the street, the entrance or the view. Fakes avoid anything that could identify the building.

The text

• Translated or generic. Clumsy machine-translated text, or wording that could describe any flat anywhere, is common in copied listings.
• Vague on location. No floor, no exact street, just “city centre” or a neighbourhood name. Real landlords usually give the street at least, or the exact address once you ask.
• “Contact me by email or WhatsApp only.” Moving you off the portal means the portal’s safety systems can no longer see the conversation.
• Emotional story in the description. Long explanations about why the owner is renting it cheaply belong to the next check.

The account

On portals that show profiles, look at who posted it.

• A brand new account with one listing and no history.
• No phone number, or a number from a different country to the flat.
• Several very different flats in several cities, all at low prices.
• A private person claiming to be an agency, or an agency whose name you cannot find in a company register or on its own real website.

The story

Scammers need an explanation for why you cannot see the flat or meet the owner. The stories repeat:

• “I am working abroad” or “I moved for a new job” and cannot show the flat.
• “The agency will send you the keys” or “my lawyer will handle it”.
• “I only want a responsible tenant, not money”, followed by a request for money.
• A sick relative, a divorce, a posting overseas: any reason why speed matters and a viewing does not.

The process

This is where most fakes fail. Ask for a viewing and watch what happens.

• No viewing possible, or only after you pay.
• A deposit or fee to “hold” the flat before you have seen it. Our guide on what never to pay before a viewing lists all the variants.
• ID scans, payslips and a bank statement requested first, before any contact beyond messages. Real landlords do ask for documents, but after you have seen the flat and shown interest, not as the opening move.
• Contract sent before any viewing, often a template with the landlord’s details missing or copied from somewhere else.

The payment

• Transfer to a private account whose holder’s name does not match the landlord’s, or an account in another country.
• Crypto, gift cards or money transfer services. No legitimate landlord needs these.
• “Escrow” or “payment protection” links sent by email or chat, using the name of a portal or a holiday rental platform. Real platforms keep payment inside their own site or app; a link to a lookalike page is a scam.
• Cash to someone you met once, with no receipt or contract.

How portals’ reporting tools work

Most portals have a “report listing” or “report user” button on each ad, and many have a safety or fraud page with advice. When you report:

• Pick the closest reason (fraud, fake photos, wrong price) and add one or two lines explaining what you found, such as the link where the photos also appear.
• Reports are reviewed by the portal’s own team or automated checks. The listing may disappear within hours or stay up for days; you usually will not hear back.
• If you have been in contact with the scammer, forward or screenshot the messages to the portal as well.
• If you paid, reporting to the portal is not enough. Call your bank and the police the same day, as described in avoiding rental scams.

Remember that a portal’s report button is not a guarantee in the other direction either. A listing that stays up has not been checked and approved. We can never guarantee that any listing, agency or landlord is legitimate, and neither can a portal.

A quick pass before you message

Before you reply to a listing, spend two minutes on this:

1. Compare the rent with the range on the city page.
2. Reverse search two or three of the photos.
3. Check that you can see a street, a floor or something that locates the flat.
4. Look at the account: age, other listings, phone number.
5. Keep your first message on the portal and ask when you can view.

If your city has its own typical scams, the city page lists them. Some are specific enough to spot in a single sentence of the listing, so read your city’s page before you start searching seriously. If the listing is a room or a flat let by a current tenant, also read our guide to subletting.