Gardaí advise students against using social media to find rooms after €20k lost in scams in July

Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan advised people not to look for property on social media, but instead to deal with recognised letting agents.

Gardaí are urging people not to rely on social media for finding student accommodation, as they revealed that 12 victims suffered a combined loss of over €20,000 through accommodation scams last month.

In many cases of accommodation fraud, contact has been made and property found through social media. Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan advised people not to look for property on social media, but instead to deal with recognised letting agents.

According to gardaí, last month’s victims lost an average of €1,729 each, with one person losing €3,685 to a fraudster. Two thirds of last month’s cases involved social media/online adverts or contacts.

Red flags

He said: “If it is only advertised through social media and you find it through a pop-up ad or some kind of link, just be very wary. If it is unsolicited as well, be careful. A sense of urgency for the deposit to be paid straightaway is another red flag. 

"And another one is where the landlord is not doing any checks on you — the vast majority of landlords are very careful about who they rent their property to so they do a lot of checks on you before they will accept you as a tenant. So if they are not doing checks on you, you have to wonder why aren’t they.” 

He also said that fraudsters in accommodation scams may also seek payment of rents or deposits in forms such as vouchers or cryptocurrency or transferred to a bank account outside of Ireland for an apartment in somewhere like Cork for example.

Victims

A man moving to Ireland from eastern Europe for work made contact with a person claiming to be renting a property online and paid a month’s rent and a deposit, before travelling to Ireland. On arrival in Ireland, he was to collect keys from his landlord, but the person failed to show up.

Meanwhile, a woman from the south of the country transferred money for a property she was planning to rent in Italy. However, the person claiming to be the landlord then sought more money and the communication then ceased.

Det Supt Cryan said of that case: “She then got somebody she knew in Italy to go and look at the accommodation and it didn’t exist.” 

He said it is very important to view a property before money has been handed over.

Gardaí advise renters to make payments in a way that is traceable and/or refundable and insist on a proper receipt and tenancy agreement.