Rental scams reach highest reported number in six years as fraudsters ‘smell blood’

The number of Aussies caught in rental scams is surging, with calls to Consumer Affairs on track for their worst year since 2017.

The number of Victorians caught in rental scams is surging, with calls to Consumer Affairs on track for their worst year since 2017.

In just six months to the end of last year, the department received 30 inquiries and complaints as desperate tenants try to navigate a housing market with increasingly limited options, rising rents and dodgy listings designed to trap the unwary.

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In the full 2021-2022 financial year, Consumer Affairs was contacted just 27 times about rental scams. Across the 12 months prior there were 40 matters raised with the state’s consumer watchdog, and the worst since 2017 was 41 calls in the 2019-2020 financial year.

Tenants Victoria’s lead community education lawyer Ben Cording said he wasn’t surprised at the rise and believed there was a greater need for renter protection.

“If the data is growing, then scams are increasingly becoming more effective and there’s more people trying to do it, then obviously we need action and we invite proper consideration,” Mr Cording said.

“It’s a bit like fishing. If the sharks smell blood in the water, more will come.”

Rental scams are duping more and more desperate renters.

He added that the numbers were probably higher, as there would be a large cohort of people who wouldn’t have known to go to Consumer Affairs to report their experience.

Rachel Toca, 32, fell victim to a scammer posing as a private landlord on Facebook, initially believing she’d found a studio in Fitzroy to call home.

“He gave us all this information about the studio … and (said he would) send us an email so it’s all written down,” she said.

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Ms Toca said she received a copy of his passport, medical card, and license with the lease agreement which she signed in April, then sent the bond and first months rent.

Things began to go awry in May when he asked to delay their move in date to June 15 as the current tenant was in hospital, after that the phony landlord stopped communicating entirely.

Ms Toca has now referred the matter to the police.

Mr Cording said the safest option to ensure a rental property was legit was to go through a real estate agency, but understood the desperation many renters were feeling.

Desperate renters are being warned to go visit the property in person if possible and see the landlord’s actual licence, rather than just a photocopy.

“Go to the house; if you can’t meet the person, get a friend to go to the house and meet the person to see their actual licence — not just a photocopy sent through to your email,” he said.

There are also steps people can take if they have been scammed.

“We encourage people never to pay cash; you want some sort of traceable details,” he said.
“You can apply to VCAT and you could look at issuing a summons on the bank.”

A Consumer Affairs Victoria spokesmansaid people should be cautious of scammers advertising rental properties on well-known websites or contacting individuals who were looking for a room to rent.

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