Is this a scam? Advice wanted

Answered!
Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Is this a scam? Advice wanted

I found a long-term rental contract in the UK from Facebook marketplace that allows pets, amazing location, pretty good deal. I checked their Facebook profile and she seems like a real person, a German 60ish woman (if it's fake, it's pretty well made). I contact her, she sends me a well-organised detailed email about the property, says bills are all included etc., I'm "not the only person interested in the flat" pets are okay, etc. She explains "I bought this apartment because I worked there but now I have moved permanently, I wanted to sell it initially but I decided that it is better to rent it. The apartment was rented for a short-term for several different people, but together with my family I decided to rent it only for a long-term from now on." (I didn't ask, but I thought ok cool.) Strangely she uses an encrypted email service (Proton Mail). I ask for a viewing and she says this: 

 

" I moved permanently from the country so I will not be able to come personally to take care of this rental.
 
We wanted to rent out the apartment the normal way, but we were very disappointed by two different persons that were not serious at all and wasted time, money for plane tickets and spent time in quarantine on the way back to home for nothing
 
Now I have a contract made with AIRBNB to of the appointments for visits. The meeting will take place in the apartment with an AIRBNB agent who will be appointed after you book the apartment and he will give you the keys, of course if you like it and you decide to rent it. The lease will be handed over by the AIRBNB agent but will be concluded between the two of us. A copy will remain with you and one will be sent to me by agent. I've invested a lot in this apartment and I'm sure you'll love it."
 

I didn't think this was too strange but I realised that Airbnb doesn't have this kind of service. So it must be a third party? I replied saying I was interested in a viewing, she asked me for all my personal details and passport ID. Excerpt of email: 

 

"We use AIRBNB only for booking, so we are both protected in this process. The payment of the monthly rent, of course, if you decide to rent my apartment, will be made directly into my bank account on a date that we will set together, of course when it will be good for you. 

...

As I told you I have a contract with Airbnb and they will help us for booking, viewing and possibly a rental. To establish a viewing it is necessary to complete the reservation on your behalf. After I receive this information, I will send it to the agent. After that we are waiting for the agent's confirmation that the apartment is booked and I will put you in touch with him to give you the latest details. Without this reservation Airbnb will not select any agent to present your apartment. All expenses with Airbnb will be borne by me regardless of your decision."

 

I send her my personal details. She replies saying "I sent them to the agent. Everything is ok. Please contact him at: email with this 10 digit code. I hope you can get a visit as soon as possible. The apartment is reserved in your name at this time." 

 

Initially I thought, ok she needs to use an agent if she's not in the country. But after her whole explanation using "Airbnb", strange email domain of the supposed agent (@airbnbagent.com), her email uses protonmail, it started to feel a bit fishy. The deal is pretty good, a little over our budget but it seemed worth it, it's a very new apartment with nice official photos. Usually when I mention I have a cat, they say something about furniture damage, but she didn't mention that at all. The use of Airbnb is a lie, because I don't think airbnb offers that service (it would have been more believable if she just said third party...)

 

If she said that we needed to pay before seeing the flat, that would confirm a scam. But she is providing the agent so we could view the flat before confirming. We might email the agent to see what happens, we are definitely not paying anything before we see the flat in person. But we are not sure.

 

Do you think it is a scam? 

 

1 Best Answer

@Risa793  She won't "come for you", but it's not really important to mention these scammer's names, because those aren't their real names, it's all a scam and they change the names as they get found out. 

 

The "male agent" part is super weird. I think that was in reference to "I have 3  children, I can't take care of you". Like a male agent has no children to look after. 

 

Meantime, the scammer is probably some guy sitting in his mother's basement in Argentina, or Russia, or who knows where, whose mom is under the impression he's taking online courses all day.  🙂

 

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26 Replies 26
Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

I'm not sure if I'm being overly sceptical and reading into things too much. I emailed back asking for more detail about this "Airbnb agent". We're probably not going ahead with this property because it's too dodgy and we have other options, but it'll be interesting to see what she replies. 

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Risa793  It is absolutely a scam.  There are no 'airbnb agents' that do any kind of on site visit or do anything in terms of confirming rentals, etc.  

Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

That's what I thought as well, but she isn't asking me to pay without viewing the flat, so she may well be calling her third party agent an "Airbnb agent" (which I do think is dodgy and means she can't be trusted because she's outright lying). I do wonder if we get a proper viewing, then it would mean the property actually does exist, and she'll send me a signed contract before I pay the deposit - and could she run off with my deposit even after all that? I'll definitely be confirming whether she is a real person. Hmm ...

@Risa793  Airbnb doesn't take 'deposits', you pay when you make the reservation, and you always pay through the web site.  For long term stays [ I don't do them so am not as familiar], but I believe the guest pays the first 30 days up front.  There used to be a mechanism to pay 50% up front and then 50% when the reservation started, not sure if that still exists.

 

I also don't think there is any legit airbnbagent.com emails...so that is a huge clue that her whole story is fake.

Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Yes the airbnbagent.com domain sounds totally dodgy. Basically the deposit, rent will be paid to her directly, only the initial viewing is through "airbnb" (at her expense, apparently...) 

@Risa793   This is such a common scam that even this forum has dozens of posts about it. 

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Rental-scam-using-Airbnb-How-should-I-go-forward-if-at-all/...

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Rental-Scam-Red-Flags-and-How-to-Avoid/m-p/657514

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Possible-Scam-Long-term-renting-through-Airbnb/m-p/1433693

 

I don't recommend Facebook Marketplace for your housing search. It's widely used by con artists, but legitimate landlords and hosts will have nothing to do with it.

Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Thanks for the links! I've read a few of them but my case seems a bit different which is why I wanted to ask for advice on this particular case . Though I am pretty sure it is scam since she is lying about the agent. I'm interested in finding out what happens if I question her or try to contact the agent.  Actually I have found a few legit housing on Facebook marketplace in the past, so it's not all bad. I've had friends find rental deals on there too. There are a few obvious scams but I think if you know how to watch out for them it could work. 

Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

The reason why it is different is because she isn't asking to pay deposit, the deposit and rent will not be through Airbnb, it will be directly to her bank account (makes sense as she is landlord). She is only mentioning "airbnb agent" to view the property, and we won't need to pay anything for that. I'd understand how a scammer will try to get the money before viewing (the property doesn't exist) but I'm wondering how she exactly is trying to scam 

@Risa793   The wording always changes, but one common thread is that the scammer baits people with an ad on another platform (Facebook, Craigslist, etc) but then claims to do all their bookings through Airbnb. I've seen several versions of a story involving an "Airbnb agent," which is not a thing that exists. Airbnb does not have any staff physically engaged with rentals, and it absolutely doesn't facilitate any viewings before booking. 

 

As you already noticed, airbnbagent.com is a laughably fake domain. If you ever encounter an ad on another platform directing you to an Airbnb link, or receive an email claiming to be from Airbnb, check the URL carefully against this: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/971/how-do-i-know-if-an-email-or-website-is-really-from-airbnb

 

 

@Risa793 I think it has to be a scam because there is no 'airbnb agent' she uses 'Airbnb' because it is a known brand.  I would guess she will take your money but the apartment you view, if that even ever happens, won't be available, it will either be a bait and switch to a different substandard apartment or there will be no apartment at all available, the place you look at will not be open for you.  That's my guess but there may be more ingenious ways the scam could work

@Risa793  You seem determined to want to believe this is "different". It isn't. She has already told you a bunch of lies. Can't you see that she has used more or less exactly the same wording as the scammers in the threads that were posted above?

 

She will at some point tell you to send money. If you are shown a place by a bogus "agent" before that, and send money to a bank account, you will never see your money again, and you will not have anyplace to stay.

Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

No I'm pretty sure it's a scam now, but I'm still interested in how she does it and it's quite fascinating how well she's set up everything haha. I'm interested in what creative ways they have come up with to try to get money from me, since they aren't using a tried-and-tested generic scamming method previously 

posted on the forums. I'm just waiting now what she says to my emails to get more clues on the specifics and hopefully she'll give more evidence that it's a scam. I'll post on here in case people are interested !

@Risa793  These scams have been going on for years. Yes, they are very adept at this, they obviously have savvy techies whe can create fake look-alike websites that almost look like the real thing. And as you said, you looked at her Facebook page and it looked legit. 

 

But guaranteed it's all fake. And you said it makes sense that you'd send money to a bank account of a landlord. But it doesn't. No one should ever send money to some stranger off the internet. 

 

If you rent a legitimate place, then sure, once you are living there, you might deposit your monthly rent into the landord's bank account, but before you ever moved in  you would meet with the landlord or renntal agent, they would interview you, ask for references,, work history , current  employment, etc. 

 

But sure, if you want to play her out, because you are obviously really curious now, let us know at what point  she tries to get you to hand over money.

Risa793
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

As I've said I'm not going ahead with this property anyway, so not to worry. I was interested in what people thought about this exchange but it's good that everyone to unanimously agree that it is a scam :))