I am searching for a new appartment and answered to his listing on Kleinanzeigen. He is asking me to send him my documents on this platform which I find strange (no one until now has asked me this). Is it okay to send them here or is this behaviour a red flag? Do I need to ask him something else’? The price for this offer is relatively good tbh.
by nikaeliiii
17 comments
It’s not a red flag per se, a lot of flats have so many applicants that landlords can basically ask for your firstborn. It is of course a little bit risky to send personal data to some unknown entity on the Internet. Either do that or don’t get the flat, these are unfortunately the only two options.
Hi there,
It could be legit or a scam. Landlords would normally ask to see those things at some point during the process.
That being said, the timing seems off. Normally you can expect to view the properly before sharing any info, so while that could be someone who’s just a bit off, it could also be a scam. The German is also off though… it’s a bit weird to me, and while I am not getting 100% scam vibes, ultimately I wouldn’t take the risk.
Mhm i would lean to not a red flag. The usual scam is to pay money for some keys, since the landlord happens to be in spain or something stupid. It feels weird, but a lot of landlords expect this from you.
There is always a risk sending out you personal information, but on the other hand: this practice is normal in germany.
Theoretically, landlords or Makler are not supposed to ask for more information than necessary to organize a visit, which would be contact data. More information would become relevant once you as a potential tenant and the landlord want to proceed further.
With the rental market being the shitshow it happens to be, they need a way to filter before having a couple of 100 visits (where they’ll reject 99% anyhow) and they know, they can ask basically for anything as people are desperate to score a place to live.
Not nice, but that’s the unfortunate situation.
Technically, it is not really legal for them to ask these information before even viewing the appartment, however, at least in the bigger cities, landlords can pretty much do whatever they want. Don’t wanna send the documents in advance? Okay, someone else gets the appartment.
It doesn’t necessarily sound like a scam, but you can never know if they’re just stealing your data.
its not weird to ask for these documents for a landlord but idk about sending your income documentation to a stranger on ebay. there are also quite a few german mistakes in combination with a german surname.
Something about this seems fishy. I think it’s the mistakes in their German – to me they don’t read like the sort of mistakes a native speaker would make – in combination with the German surname. Even the way they sign it is off.
Them asking for that many documents is not uncommon nowadays, so it comes down to how desperate you are for this specific apartment. I, personally, would probably not feel comfortable sending the documents.
I wouldn’t do that. Not after at least seeing the apartment you wanna rent.
he writes “einen Schufa Auskunft” which is grammatically false “eine Auskunft”
then first sentence too “senden mir bitte” also bad German, but mottherfcker is called Baumann (very German name) – very unlikely he makes such stupid mistakes
just check if the account existed for longer or something to identify him as legit, the text seems very pre written, like copy pasted
Going through Kleinanzeigen, it’s definitely a red flag. Try getting a Phone number or email. Kleinanzeigen in itself is not secure enough for such sensible data.
Unless you are 100% sure it’s not a scam. But there is a lot of identity theft as well as impersonating going on there
What kind of scammer would choose the name Baumann???
IMO 100% legit
Just don’t do that on your statement it says your name, your employer, your account number, everything is on it and you can use it to go shopping and register your identity somewhere. Something like that only works in personal contact. He also has your email address if you send it to him by email and then he can open an account somewhere on eBay and do a lot of shopping, provide your name, your email address, your account number and the thing is done.
I am searching for a place now and every single one of them requires those before even talking to you. Idk where in this country it is NOT common.
Just black out everything on paycheck except maybe amount and company name and you are fine.
Very good price + this request with grammatical errors = scam.
99% legit. A scam would be asking you money not documents. What am I supposed to do with your documents?
I had to rent my apartment a couple of times and the shitload of people not being eligible or making appointments and not showing up is incredible. Then you hear how much people cry to find a place.
Asking for documents in advance was the only way to see if the people were REALLY interested or if they were casually browsing. I wasted so much time waiting for people, getting the house ready for visits that after that I said never again. Or the ones who come and then don’t earn enough to qualify (even though all information was provided in great detail). You make 1000 pictures and I get asked questions that are answerable looking at the pictures or the description. It’s wild.
All the places I rented, I sent my docs in advance whenever they were asked. I never cared and in fact I always managed to get a place quite fast. You have to show you’re ready (all docs prepared) and sure of wanting it to be taken seriously. Even agencies don’t answer if they don’t see this through your application.
The bad German (or bad spelling – could be either) looks fishy to me. Not familiar with whatever it is you’re using there to communicate, but their preference for using that over e-mail could potentially raise an eyebrow, as well.
It’s not enough to be sure, but I for one would stay away from this.
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