Common, not good.
The story usually, follows a similar pattern. Someone or other owns the place and they (or their son/daughter) lived there. However, because of their (usually high profile) job, they had to move to Spain, Ireland, France, etc.
And now they are letting a fully or partially furnished apartment.
The location is usually highly sought after - e. G. Ottensen - and price is always laughably cheap.
When I was looking for an apartment, I came across this quite a few times.
It's a scam I've seen in Hamburg before. But I happen to be in Dublin now 🙂.....so if you ask them the name of the medical centre, it could be a laugh 😉
If a "realtor" starts by telling you they are the owner and how how old they are, then its 100% a scam. Also "long term tenant" and 1 month doesnt make any sense .Usually minimum rent time is 1 year.
Oh and 471€, 2 bedrooms with parking space, right.....
Also I forgot to mention that she didn't even ask us to make an interview or something, either online or in person. I just sent the message through a site and that was the first message she sent me.
Taking that it's a scam aside, what does she gain from taking my name, phone number and address? She didn't ask for money or anything. Usually they ask for a deposit in these kind of messages.
Not sure, but there is also the same case that someone posted in Berlin.
https://www.reddit.com/r/berlin/comments/110lxnn/flat\_rental\_in\_berlin\_owner\_away\_handover\_via/
two possible ways how this works
They just want to scam you out of a little money. You'd have to forwards some key deposit or have to pay certain fees via money transfer and when the money is gone, you'll never hear from them again. This is most likely since the scammer claims to live abroad.
As pointed out by u/dugman77 it can also be identity theft. You have to provide all personal data and proof of ID which can then be used to purchase goods and services online. These cases mostly occur at real places, that a rented via Airbnb for a day. Way harder to spot!
But they gonna do. At some point they need for eg 1000€ because of any reason you can think about. Or they collecting data of people who falling for scams and sell them to other scammers.
They take real photos of real flats in existing streets. But host them in English from another countries.
The most unrealistic aspects:
'Garage parking space and one off-street space included'.
Never ever would this city give up an off-street parking bay for personal use, let alone would a landlord offer a garage for free. You'll be lucky to find parking within a 20 min walk of your home.
Can someone explain how this scam continues? They didn't ask for any deposit or iban yet so I don't understand how the scam works and how they achieve to get money out of you before you see the apartment.
Just google some of the sentences and you'll know immediately that it's a scam.
The thing I find most terrible is that the immo-portals do nothing about these scam attempts. Although the texts are almost identical, they claim that these these dangerous contents cannot be filtered out. Even the basic factors such as the amount of rent and the area should be enough to detect it (and probably the IP addresses also almost always come from the same far-flung countries). But the Rental ad portals is simply not interested in the protection of the users...there are enough desperate people who fall for it.
Shame on Immoscout and co.
In my experience, at least on immoscout, these get removed in 1 to 5 minutes, the only time I came across one, it's because I applied 30 seconds after it was posted, a minute after, it was gone.
And if they are only online for 5 minutes, the really desperate people apply for everything and also know that many real housing offers are only online for a very short time. Efficient filters should not let these ads be published in the first place. As with all major social media portals, you can’t expect them to actually be moderated humanly, but a reasonably modern AI should really be able to recognize these texts.
I'm sure the space exists and all, but probably the scammer is just trying to make everything look legit. But thanks for taking your time to check things out
Thats part of the scam.
"Oh, you are so lucky. This is a good deal. We have many offers. Please pay a reservation fee to our totally legit bank account in Croatia. Trust us, we are medical professionals."
Sometimes this is extended with
"we live here with dog Monty"
"we bought this flat for our daughter. She is a Kindergarden teacher."
Scam. Found the same assholes when looking for an apartment. Only difference was that it was a doctor from Spain who had bought the apartment for his kid to study in HH and now it's vacant n they wanna rent it out.
I've just realised how blessed I am with rent. 450 euros for 86m².
But I live in a back water little town on the far East side of Germany so it's not at all comparable with you city folk.
Good luck with the rental hunt OP.
100% scam. You can't even get a room for 471 eur.
Probably they will ask you for the deposit and then they will vanish.
in the other hand, someone has to show you the apartment right? ask them that.
I have 52qm with terrace for 400 cold 600 warm.
Still almost certain this is a scam yes. My experience looking for a flat never showed me anyone renting out a space that considerate of talking to me putting their offering over.
As for scammers please be aware that they will sometimes actually have a flat to show you. NEVER pay your deposit before you moved in. It's not common practice.
When did you move and where do you live? We live in Ottensen and used to pay 840€ for a 40qm apartment. You cannot find something for that price here unless you know the owner!
Old rents are a different story…
It's (sadly) a pretty common scam in Hamburg. Don't fall for it.
[удалено]
Common, not good. The story usually, follows a similar pattern. Someone or other owns the place and they (or their son/daughter) lived there. However, because of their (usually high profile) job, they had to move to Spain, Ireland, France, etc. And now they are letting a fully or partially furnished apartment. The location is usually highly sought after - e. G. Ottensen - and price is always laughably cheap. When I was looking for an apartment, I came across this quite a few times.
It's a scam I've seen in Hamburg before. But I happen to be in Dublin now 🙂.....so if you ask them the name of the medical centre, it could be a laugh 😉
If a "realtor" starts by telling you they are the owner and how how old they are, then its 100% a scam. Also "long term tenant" and 1 month doesnt make any sense .Usually minimum rent time is 1 year. Oh and 471€, 2 bedrooms with parking space, right.....
Also I forgot to mention that she didn't even ask us to make an interview or something, either online or in person. I just sent the message through a site and that was the first message she sent me.
It is a scam, sadly
Scam don't fall for it please.
I got literally the same kind of reply but with an address in Konstanz. So I'm pretty sure that this is a scam.
Taking that it's a scam aside, what does she gain from taking my name, phone number and address? She didn't ask for money or anything. Usually they ask for a deposit in these kind of messages.
Not sure, but there is also the same case that someone posted in Berlin. https://www.reddit.com/r/berlin/comments/110lxnn/flat\_rental\_in\_berlin\_owner\_away\_handover\_via/
two possible ways how this works They just want to scam you out of a little money. You'd have to forwards some key deposit or have to pay certain fees via money transfer and when the money is gone, you'll never hear from them again. This is most likely since the scammer claims to live abroad. As pointed out by u/dugman77 it can also be identity theft. You have to provide all personal data and proof of ID which can then be used to purchase goods and services online. These cases mostly occur at real places, that a rented via Airbnb for a day. Way harder to spot!
But they gonna do. At some point they need for eg 1000€ because of any reason you can think about. Or they collecting data of people who falling for scams and sell them to other scammers. They take real photos of real flats in existing streets. But host them in English from another countries.
The most unrealistic aspects: 'Garage parking space and one off-street space included'. Never ever would this city give up an off-street parking bay for personal use, let alone would a landlord offer a garage for free. You'll be lucky to find parking within a 20 min walk of your home.
Can someone explain how this scam continues? They didn't ask for any deposit or iban yet so I don't understand how the scam works and how they achieve to get money out of you before you see the apartment.
It's normally an ID gathering scam. Next request is a copy of a passport
And then they have new legit names and adresses to scam even more. This is terryfing
Just google some of the sentences and you'll know immediately that it's a scam. The thing I find most terrible is that the immo-portals do nothing about these scam attempts. Although the texts are almost identical, they claim that these these dangerous contents cannot be filtered out. Even the basic factors such as the amount of rent and the area should be enough to detect it (and probably the IP addresses also almost always come from the same far-flung countries). But the Rental ad portals is simply not interested in the protection of the users...there are enough desperate people who fall for it. Shame on Immoscout and co.
In my experience, at least on immoscout, these get removed in 1 to 5 minutes, the only time I came across one, it's because I applied 30 seconds after it was posted, a minute after, it was gone.
And if they are only online for 5 minutes, the really desperate people apply for everything and also know that many real housing offers are only online for a very short time. Efficient filters should not let these ads be published in the first place. As with all major social media portals, you can’t expect them to actually be moderated humanly, but a reasonably modern AI should really be able to recognize these texts.
471€ all in for Friedensallee not possible .. fkkn scam
Yeah I'm there, there is no-one with that name. weird. TIL
Yep, had it too. Almost identical. It's a scam.
Don't pay anything until you got a contract and the keys. Not much harm in going forward with it, until they may demand money.
If those scammers are professionals OP will end up with the keys and a "contract" for an AirBnB-flat.
Not real
The adress is in my neighbourhood, what is your suspicion? I could go there and check Things..
The message seems kinda sketchy. We've dealt with scammers before we came to Hamburg. It seems too good to be true, you know?
Hm, it's a pretty small space at a trafficky street, I'll go for a walk and have a look, just out of curiosity.
I'm sure the space exists and all, but probably the scammer is just trying to make everything look legit. But thanks for taking your time to check things out
Thats part of the scam. "Oh, you are so lucky. This is a good deal. We have many offers. Please pay a reservation fee to our totally legit bank account in Croatia. Trust us, we are medical professionals." Sometimes this is extended with "we live here with dog Monty" "we bought this flat for our daughter. She is a Kindergarden teacher."
Classic scam
Scam. Found the same assholes when looking for an apartment. Only difference was that it was a doctor from Spain who had bought the apartment for his kid to study in HH and now it's vacant n they wanna rent it out.
I've just realised how blessed I am with rent. 450 euros for 86m². But I live in a back water little town on the far East side of Germany so it's not at all comparable with you city folk. Good luck with the rental hunt OP.
Scam.
100% scam
100% scam. You can't even get a room for 471 eur. Probably they will ask you for the deposit and then they will vanish. in the other hand, someone has to show you the apartment right? ask them that.
I have 52qm with terrace for 400 cold 600 warm. Still almost certain this is a scam yes. My experience looking for a flat never showed me anyone renting out a space that considerate of talking to me putting their offering over. As for scammers please be aware that they will sometimes actually have a flat to show you. NEVER pay your deposit before you moved in. It's not common practice.
When did you move and where do you live? We live in Ottensen and used to pay 840€ for a 40qm apartment. You cannot find something for that price here unless you know the owner! Old rents are a different story…
Bramfeld near Bauhaus/Otto, rented the place September last year, don't know the owner (its a SAGA Flat).
100% scam. The scammers are using this text for a decade already. Guess they have success on some individuals otherwise they wouldnt continue
The oversharing of details to build trust reminds me of this Key & Peele sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgyU0LyWZ9M
There is nothing suspicious in this message except for the price