12
votes
Finding apartments is impossible
I am currently looking for an apartment because I am moving away for my masters. My girlfriend and I have contacted 15-20 people and we have received 2 answers. Both tried to scam us.
I noticed he was scamming because of the way the message was formed, it has a very typical structure. If anyone wants I can share it. I also noticed the pictures looked too good, a reverse image search showed that it was from a hotel.
This time I had the email address, so I sent him a mail asking whether this link also contained pictures of his apartment. Behind that link there was a picture of goatse lol. I am not sure if imgur counts my views twice, but so far it has had 3 visits. Just felt the need to share
Interesting to see that this happens in Germany too! Here in the US it's a fairly common scam to respond to an apartment listing and be told that the landlord is a missionary in Africa. They'll say they can't arrange a viewing, but if you apply and pay up front, they'll have the keys mailed to you. It's so transparent I can't believe it works, but apparently it does because I saw it twice on a recent apartment search. It would suck to be the victim, pay two months worth of rent and show up ready to move in only to learn you're now homeless and out a few thousand dollars.
I recall reading once that these scams are intended to be transparent precisely because the scammers don't want to waste time on someone who probably won't fall for the scam anyway. It's like a filter to specifically target the most gullible.
I can't vouch for that, though. I don't have a source and I'm far too lazy to verify.
That's makes weird sense and makes it even more sad.
So its in German, but here it is :
Hallo ,
Es tut mir leid für meine verspätete Antwort, aber ich bin gerade in Rome (Italy) und ich war sehr beschäftigt bei der Arbeit. Wie auch immer, vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse an der Vermietung meiner Wohnung. Der Preis für die monatliche Miete für die Wohnung (einschließlich aller Steuern und Abgaben) beträgt 560 EURO (600 EURO der Preis beinhaltet alle Nebenkosten) und die Kaution beträgt 1120 EURO (Betrag, den Sie am Ende der Mietzeit zurück erhalten).
Die Wohnung hat Möbel, aber ich kann sie entfernen, wenn Sie wollen. Die TV- und Internetverbindung ist im Mietpreis inbegriffen. Innen: Waschmaschine, Mikrowelle, Staubsauger, Kühlschrank, Herd. 1 Parkplatz vorhanden (dies ist optional, zum Preis von 50 EURO pro Monat). Die Wohnung hat einen Balkon.
Am Anfang habe ich ein paar Fragen:
Ich warte auf Ihre E-Mail, um zu wissen, ob Sie mit den Details meiner Wohnung zufrieden sind, die ich Ihnen gegeben habe, sowie um die Besichtigung der Wohnung zu arrangieren und weitere notwendige Vorkehrungen zu treffen.
Ich benutze Google Translate, wenn es möglich ist, auf Englisch zu kommunizieren, wäre das großartig.
Ich warte auf Ihre Antwort.
Hier sind noch ein paar Bilder von der Wohnung: https://imgur.com/a/XQRuQKY
Grüße!
Cristian V.
So he claims his name is Cristian, but on the website his name was Biber or sth.
The questions are super basic :
How many people will live there?
How long do you want to stay?
How will you pay rent? (like what does that even mean lol)
He also says he owns this house in germany but can't speak German, the price is super cheap, and 'he can leave it furnished or unfurnished'
How you're going to pay rent is important. It could be cash, or check, or e-check, or card. I'd say that's a legitimate question.
I can't speak for the rest of it, though, because I don't speak German, broken or otherwise. :P
I don't think any way except for bank transfer is very usual in germany tbh