Rent in full: how scammers deceive Russians when renting housing
Scammers began to deceive Russians who are looking for rental housing. To do this, criminals create fake ads with apartments at low prices, and then lure users to fake websites of popular platforms and aggregators. Izvestia explained how to recognize such schemes and not suffer when renting an apartment.
Rental fraud
Fraudsters began to deceive Russians under the guise of rental services. Irina Dmitrieva, an analytical engineer at the Gazinformservice Cybersecurity Research Laboratory, told Izvestia about this.
According to her, the criminals became more active in the spring, with the onset of the holiday season. They fake the websites of popular platforms, lure visitors there and offer apartments and apartments "at discounted prices."
— Rental housing services were not chosen by chance: their high recognition and the prevalence of built-in payment mechanisms through integrated payment web services reduce the vigilance of users. Victims who have already had experience interacting with them are more likely to click on fake links or enter confidential data (for example, card details or accounts) on fake pages, says Dmitrieva.
Fraudsters can promote housing rental ads in messengers, in discussions on social networks, or directly on aggregator sites. There they try to "take" the person to a third-party application, where they send a link to the payment. However, according to Evgenia Lazareva, coordinator of the Moshelovka platform, the services have tools to protect users, so the number of such complaints is steadily decreasing.
The Telegram channel "SHOT check" also reported on schemes with fake service sites. According to the channel, scammers can send emails to a person that completely copy the official one. If the tenant goes to the website and enters the card details, the money will "flow away" to the criminals. As a result, he will be left without funds and without housing.
Common tricks
As lawyer Sean Betrozov explains to Izvestia, real estate rental fraud remains one of the most common. The criminals have studied the habits and psychological vulnerabilities of tenants well and have learned how to act convincingly.
— Fraudsters usually create the illusion of a secure transaction by using fake contracts, pseudo-agencies, and links supposedly to services. At the same time, they tell a story that looks plausible: the owner cannot meet in person, but is ready to provide "guarantees" through a supposedly reputable booking service, where nothing threatens either the tenants or the "owner," says the lawyer.
Most often, he notes, scammers play on the fact that potential tenants do not want to spend a lot of time on formalities or are not aware of the mechanisms that need to be checked before transferring money. For example, if someone is trying to rent an apartment in a short time, and even with a limited budget, the person is ready to believe even in obviously suspicious conditions. People are happy with a profitable offer, do not pay attention to strange details and agree to remote transfers.
"As a result, after sending the advance or the full amount, it turns out that the real apartment either does not exist, or has been rented to other persons for a long time, or has nothing to do with the false owner," the source continues.
Sometimes, he adds, scammers do not limit themselves to one payment: they may ask you to enter a text message code "for confirmation" and make repeated transactions. As a result, the person loses an even larger amount.
Search for victims
The most common scheme that scammers are actively using today is related to the fact that the owner is allegedly abroad and is urgently trying to rent a house on a popular online platform or in a messenger, says Sean Betrozov. The photos look plausible, the ad text is well written, and the presentation of information inspires confidence.
— When a housing applicant writes to the author of the ad, he receives a detailed answer: a smart lock is installed in the apartment, the keys are in a special box. The fraudster assures that it would be safest to make the payment through official services so that both parties would not be harmed and the tenant could get the money back. But the link leads to a phishing page," the lawyer explains.
Another common fraud, he says, is a pseudo—pre-payment, or "security deposit." Scammers say that without a small prepayment, they cannot fix the deal, because there is a demand for an apartment, and they ask to send, for example, 10-20% of the monthly fee.
— After receiving the money, the criminal disappears, and the contact information turns out to be either fake or no longer active. A similar version is that when a "contract" is sent to a person, he signs it, scans it, returns it, but this has no legal force, because the documents are fake, and the details for
the transfers are fraudulent," the lawyer concludes.
How to recognize a fraudster
Experts recommend following a few simple rules. The first is not to make an advance payment until a real inspection of the apartment has been carried out and the identity of the owner has been confirmed. If a potential landlord explains that he is abroad, his interests may be represented by an agency or a private realtor.
The second rule is not to follow questionable links or double—check the website address, it must completely match the official one. If the "landlord" has sent a URL that looks different, it is highly likely to be a fraudulent page.
— The main markers in e—commerce and services are requests to click on a link, leave the service, make a deal based on an ad in a messenger, download an additional application, explains Evgenia Lazareva. — The principles of e-commerce are that the service must guarantee the security of the transaction for both the customer user and the seller of the product or service. But the service can provide this security only if the relationship between users — from discussion to payment transfer — takes place in its circuit.
Therefore, she calls the most reliable way to protect against fraudsters the conclusion of a transaction within the framework of the service — in your personal account on the website or in the official application. You can supplement this method by installing and regularly updating antivirus protection solutions for your device. They will block malware or a phishing link if the user accidentally clicks on it.
How to check the accommodation
There are various ways to check the rental housing that is offered on the Internet. If a person suspects that the ad is fake (for example, the apartment is offered at a lower price than the neighboring ones), they can upload photos to search engines and see if they appear in other offers or on foreign websites. If it turns out that way, they are almost certainly scammers.
Secondly, you can check the user to see if there are reviews about him on the site, if there are other ads when he registered. It is better to meet with the owner or his realtor in person: find out the necessary details, request documents.
— The documents should also be checked, — says Sean Betrozov. — An extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRN) is available to anyone, and it will show who really owns the apartment. The real owner will either bring you the original documents or provide copies of them that can be rechecked. If a person says that "the documents are at home in another city," and asks you to take your word for it or sends you a scan, this is a "red flag."
It is even more important, he adds, to verify the identity of the person himself. You can request his passport data, check that the data in it and the title documents match. If the transaction is going to be concluded by proxy, you should check its authenticity with the notary who allegedly issued it. Such a check may take time, but this is what makes it possible to detect fraud.
— If conversations immediately begin that you need to pay in advance or make a deposit without inspection, with reference to a certain service, it is better to give up and look for other housing, — the lawyer concludes.
What should victims do?
If a person has already been injured, transferred money to criminals, or provided their bank details on a phishing site, you need to urgently call the bank and report the fraudulent operation. You can ask the bank to cancel the transaction or conduct a chargeback procedure if the funds have not yet been permanently deposited into the recipient's account, explains lawyer Sean Betrozov.
— At the same time, you need to contact the police with a fraud report under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The application should include all the known facts: contact numbers, links, email addresses, fragments of correspondence, screenshots from the website, banking details to which you made the transfer. The more specifics there are, the better the chances that criminals will be discovered or at least their channels for further fraud will be blocked," the lawyer says.
When interacting with the police, he advises to remain calm and carefully prepare materials. It is useful to keep all correspondence, any contracts, scans, emails. It happens that scammers use the same banking details to transfer money — banks and law enforcement agencies accumulate information, and with coincidences, there are real chances to detain the group.
— Unfortunately, full compensation for damages is not always possible, but the more quickly you respond, the more likely it is to fix something. If the fraud insurance service or additional protection measures were enabled on the card, be sure to inform the bank about this," the Izvestia interlocutor recommends.
According to him, even if it is not possible to return the funds, the victim can always help bring fraudsters to justice. Therefore, it is important to seek criminal proceedings and warn about the scheme of deception of their friends.
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