The latest rental scam in Spain and how to avoid it

A fake listing, a user looking for a rental, a tense WhatsApp conversation and a line of credit with which they bought 9,340 euros are all part of this scam which thankfully has a happy ending. Rental scams in Spain are increasingly common an it's important to know how to spot them and avoid them. This story is an example of the sophisticated behaviour of scammers on real estate portals and the importance of information to avoid falling into the trap. We have all the details about the latest rental scam in Spain and how to avoid it.

Knowledge is key to avoiding scams

"The more informed we are about these fraudulent procedures, the more alert we are and the more difficult it is to fall for their tricks and give the wrong person information as sensitive as our ID card, for example". This is the opinion of Ruth García Ruiz, Cybersecurity for Citizens technician at Incibe (National Cybersecurity Institute), who assures us that knowledge is essential to avoid falling prey to scams such as the one that happened to a resident in the Spanish city of Valencia.

The latest rental scam in Spain

It all started on 19th October with a search on idealista.com for flats to rent. Hripsime Avetisyan, a Spanish woman of Armenian origin and a tax analyst by profession, was interested in a listing for a flat for 750 euros in Calle Denia in Valencia, a market price for a 64 m2 one-bedroom flat in the Ruzafa neighbourhood.

Responding to the listing, the interested party called the telephone number provided but didn't get an answer at that time. From then on, the scammers got in touch via WhatsApp, a communication channel used throughout the process by their two interlocutors, David and Sofía, supposed members of the real estate agency in charge of managing the flat.

From the very first moment, both warn Ripsi (Spanish adaptation of Hripsime) that the property was in high demand and that a preliminary payment guarantee study was going to be carried out to assess the candidates. With this justification, ID card, salary and direct debit receipt were requested.

Before sending the request, and aware that this was sensitive information, Ripsi had consulted her friend with experience in the real estate sector: "It is not the most usual thing to do, but sometimes with properties in high demand it is done", she had received as a reply

"When you see a flat you love, you get a bit blind, you want to convince yourself that everything is going to be fine. They had given me the address of the agency and invited me to drop by whenever I wanted," explains Ripsi. A few minutes after sending the documents, Ripsi received a call from her friend warning her that the listing they had been talking about had been removed from the real estate portal. In its place was now the legend 'Warning! Suspicious listing', which the portal uses to filter out possible fraudulent offers.

The interested party asked Sofia for an explanation as to what was going on. In response, Sofia sent the following message: "Because we have many candidates in sight. There are more than 20 people who want the flat".

Faced with the insistence of an increasingly alert Ripsi, Sofía responded defiantly shortly afterwards: "I'm sorry but I don't want to bother you, but you're not letting us work. You contact us via the app and by phone, we attend to you by phone and we contact you by WhatsApp, if you want to come and if not wait until tomorrow that the insurance company will have given us an answer [alludes to the study on your financial solvency] and we can carry out the visit if all your details are true, because your profile is the type that our client wants! Don't worry.

Illegal purchases for 9,340 euros

From this point onwards, we summarise a process that was a tangled one, and in which - fortunately for the interested party - the fraudsters demonstrated a certain imperfection. The alarm was raised when a high-end bicycle was delivered to the address on Ripsi's ID card (that of a cousin). Her family member immediately raised the alarm, surprised by this purchase of 7,500 euros, of which she only became aware in time due to a mistake on the part of the fraudsters. In addition, the purchase receipt contains one of the two telephone numbers that the supposed agency had used in communications with Ripsi.

Increasingly alarmed, she personally contacted Inmobiliaria Igarka, where Sofia had assured her that she worked, after a new request for an explanation. In conversation with the owner, Nora García confirmed what Ripsi had feared: they did not have the aforementioned flat for rent and the two people she was talking about had never worked there. Once the scam was revealed, they decided to go to the authorities together to file a complaint.

But Ripsi still had to find out how her details had been used. Pulling the thread of the delivery note for the bicycle, she contacted the supplier and found out that the purchase had been financed by Cetelem. Contacting this consumer credit company, she discovered that the same loan had been used to pay for a MacBook laptop for 1,840 euros.

Ripsi's quick action made it possible to return the bicycle and stop the shipment of the computer: "If I hadn't found out, the following month I would have received the first of the bills for more than 700 euros, but even today I don't know what surprises await me. I don't know if they have done other types of operations, and I have no choice but to consult the Bank of Spain (Banco de España) every month to check which institutions I have loans with so I can keep track of them".

What the experts say

"They usually register a legitimate user profile with which they can publish one or more listings in which they use beautiful real photos taken from the internet, and although this is not the case in this case, normally with a below-market price as a hook".

Ruth García Ruiz, from Incibe, explains the usual modus operandi in this type of scams in real estate portals in Spain. She explains several tips to keep our defensive wall high as users, but not before reminding us that there is the 017 telephone number, as well as other channels of help, at the service of any citizen.

What to do before and during contact with the advertiser

García Ruiz comments on the preference of fraudsters to show homes with minimalist decoration in light colours, "which is what most attracts young people". "The key is to identify these malicious listings beforehand, because once the data has been provided, they can do a lot of damage with them".

• Scammers tend to use prestigious online platforms, "because they offer added security to the user".
• "You should check the name of the company or the owner's details to understand who you are dealing with. You should be wary of poorly written listings, which shows a lack of professionalism or the use of an automatic translator. You should also analyse the photos, even using applications such as Google Images, which allows you to find out if they are being used in other listings that have nothing to do with yours. You should see what comments the user has and be wary if they have none.
• "It is important to bear in mind that once the first contact has been made, the scammer will quickly try to divert the conversation outside the platform's official channels, normally to WhatsApp".
• "Sometimes they can also provide malicious links to get hold of our data, for example, justifying the payment of a deposit by sending us to a fake transaction platform.
• "Be alert to any type of request that is out of the ordinary, such as when they say they are abroad and cannot show the flat".

What to do if you are suspicious

"When there are indications of fraud," García Ruiz continues, "you can take some initiatives to help us understand what is going on, but always keeping all possible evidence of the different contacts we have. This point is essential in the event that a complaint has to be filed".

For these cases in which the user has doubts, "if we talk to the owner, we can turn the tables, and ask them to prove that they are the owner. In other cases, you can ask for more photos to see what they send us, or make an unusual request. For example, painting the walls a turquoise colour or saying that you want a freezer cabinet in the kitchen - the point is to see how they react, because if they don't put up any obstacles to an unusual request, the suspicion will be more alarming.

What to do if you have fallen into the trap of a scammer in Spain

"In addition to putting in order all possible evidence that you have been a victim of fraud, file a report with the authorities. This step is necessary in order to then hand it in to the companies where you may have made the purchases or arranged the consumer credit, as in the case we are talking about. This is the only way to prove that someone has been using your identity.

Another of the recommendations of the Incibe technique is known as 'egosurfing'. "You can use any search engine, such as Google, to find out what information there is about you. It is a matter of typing in your name and surname, ID number, email address or some other piece of information that appears in the documentation used by the offender and checking that they have not created false profiles or used the data against your will. If this is the case, we must request that the information be withdrawn and file a complaint".

What real estate agencies can do

As for the companies, in this case the real estate agencies that fraudsters impersonate or use as bait during contacts in order to convey confidence to the victim, García Ruíz considers that there is not much that can be done. "Unfortunately, anyone can be impersonated. Stealing the corporate image of any real estate agency to create fake profiles is relatively easy, and there is little that can be done. Again, a good recommendation is to 'egosurf': "They have to check for fake profiles, even on the platforms where they are hosted. Even if they are not responsible for the fraud, their reputation is damaged, and the sooner they are aware of it, the less damage is done. Another measure for platforms that have a profile verification system is to ask for that badge that tells the user that they are really dealing with the company they want".

Advice from idealista to avoid rental scams

idealista recognises the difficulty of protecting oneself against fraud with very different procedures for action. Despite this, it has designed "a set of tools and procedures that minimise all the possible impact of hypothetical criminal activity. We have a quality team that is constantly listening to the warnings that our users send us through suspicous listings, twitter or any other resource at hand. In addition, we are in constant contact with law enforcement agencies to pursue these crimes".

Owners and business users are also reminded of the importance of "never providing access data by any means, nor the validation code received by SMS after publishing the listing. And when you arrive at a page where you have to enter your login details, check that you are using a secure page, for example that the address begins with https://www.idealista.com/. Never trust any other address that does not start with this. Being strict about this will save you a lot of trouble.