Posting on behalf of a friend, about renting in Germany (who’s moving to Germany for an internship from Australia).
Multiple posts on Facebook Marketplace that she’s reached out to online have asked for photos of her ID and passport, as well as a deposit (one asked for the deposit to be paid through booking dot com). I’ve attached screenshots of the messages to have a look at.
It sounds plain and simple like scams but figured we would ask since she doesn’t know how renting in Germany/Europe works compared to Australia.
As a follow-up, does anyone have any recommendations for finding/looking for accomodations in Germany, especially from overseas? In our part of Australian it’s common to look through facebook marketplace and some local facebook groups.
Thankyou!!
by creditcardhoe
4 comments
No those are just scams. Have a look in the wiki for housing websites.
It’s a scam.
Booking.com is a travel agency and doesn’t offer an escrow service for rentals. You don’t pay any money in advance, and certainly not before you have seen the apartment. And the ID card you’ve been shown is that of a previous victim: your ID card/passport will be used in the same way to scam somebody else.
!housing
Yeah it’s a scam and the ID is from a different scam victim. The first and third also doesn’t sound like that a human has written the text.
Start by reading [https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/living/housing/](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/living/housing/).
Being asked to pay anything before both parties have signed the rental contract and you’ve seen the interior of the apartment in person (*not* on a zoom call) practically *screams* “scam”. Sending you a photo of a passport doesn’t prove *anything* except that the person you’re communicating with has access to a photo of a passport, probably from a previous victim of the same scam.