Had a scare this week — found a listing that looked perfect, messaged the "landlord", and within an hour they were asking for a deposit to "hold" the place before I'd even seen it in person, said they were currently abroad for work. Something felt off so I said no and the messages got noticeably more pushy.
Is this a known pattern or did I just have bad luck? How common is this?
You did exactly the right thing — that is a textbook version of the classic remote-rental scam, and the "conveniently abroad, can't meet in person, needs money before you can view it" combination is the giveaway every time. Real landlords and agencies overwhelmingly want to show the place before any money changes hands; urgency to skip that step is the red flag, not the ask for a deposit itself.
Good instinct trusting the "something felt off" — that's usually right.
Never pay anything before an in-person or properly verified live video viewing — I treat it as a hard rule now, no exceptions regardless of how good the listing looks.
Had an almost word-for-word identical experience. Definitely a known pattern, not bad luck on your part.
Yes, extremely common unfortunately, glad you trusted your gut on this one.
Is there anywhere reliable to actually report these listings so they get taken down faster, before someone else falls for it?
To Marco's question about where to report these: the listing platform first, because they can take the ad down fastest, and then the police or the national fraud reporting service, even if no money changed hands. The report helps them spot the same photos and phone numbers reappearing, which they very often do.
If you're in Ireland like Elena, the Scams section lists the common rental patterns and where to report them. Most country guides have the same section.
The same thing happened to us in Cork, almost word for word, with a "landlord" working on an oil platform. We reported it and the ad was gone the next day.
Reported mine after reading this. Two weeks later the exact same photos popped up again under a different name, so I reported that one too. It's like whack-a-mole.
Same photos under a new name is the tell every time.