Gardaí warn students of rental scams as one victim loses more than €3,600

Students are being warned to watch out for accommodation fraud in the build up to the new academic year as one victim lost more than €3,600 last month in a rental scam.

Gardaí said one third of all accommodation scams take place during August to September each year.

Signs of a potential rental scam include a landlord who claims to be out of the country and is unable meet the renter in person, and the request for a deposit payment before a viewing.

Another common example is when the fraudster is living in the property and shows a number of people around the accommodation, gets a deposit from several people and then disappears with the money.

Gardaí said that sometimes the transaction appears normal until the renter finds that the property doesn’t exist, is already occupied, or the keys do not work and the landlord has disappeared.

Throughout July this year, a number of accommodation fraud incidents were reported to gardaí. Over the month, 12 victims reported a loss of €20,746, an average of €1,729 each – the largest amount was €3,685 and the smallest was €380.

Two foreign-based victims were moving to Ireland and lost €5,515 between them. Ten of these victims were Irish-based and lost €15,231 or an average of €1,523 each. At least eight of the 12 victims were deceived through social media or online adverts or contacts.

Gardaí are asking people to not agree to rent a property without viewing it, ensure the property is registered with the Residential Tenancies Board, meet the landlord for a tour of the accomodation and check Google Maps to see that the property is the same as that advertised.

Potential renters are advised to obtain a payment receipt and a tenancy agreement and not to pay by cash.

Gardaí say people should report any incident of suspected fraud to their local Garda station. You should also report suspected fraud to your bank and ask to do a recall as soon as possible.