How I Found a Safe Place to Rent (and Avoided a Scam)

How I Found a Safe Place to Rent (and Avoided a Scam)

I'll tell you the embarrassing story first. Five days before I flew to Sydney to start my Master's at UNSW, I found what looked like a perfect room on Facebook Marketplace. Fully furnished, $180/week, 10 minutes from campus. The landlord was an Australian man working overseas on a mining contract — couldn't show me the property in person, but sent photos, offered to mail the keys if I just transferred the 4-week bond first ($720) and the first month's rent ($780).

I was about to do it. I had transferred the money into my Chinese bank account ready to send. Then my cousin, who had lived in Sydney for four years, called me and immediately said: "Stop. That's a scam. Do not send anything."

She was right. It was textbook. The photos were stolen from a real property. The 'landlord' vanished the moment I asked to call him.

What every rental scam looks like

After that near-miss, I read everything I could find. Here's the pattern:

• The price is significantly below what similar properties in that area cost
• The landlord is conveniently overseas or interstate and cannot show you the property
• They want payment before you sign anything or see the property
• They ask for payment via wire transfer, Western Union, cryptocurrency, or gift cards
• They create urgency: "I have three other people interested, you need to act today"
• There is no formal lease offered upfront

If even one of these is true, stop. If two or more are true, it's almost certainly a scam.

How I actually found my room

I stayed in a short-stay apartment near campus for the first two weeks while I searched properly. Yes, it cost money I hadn't budgeted for. It was worth it.

I found my current share house on Flatmates.com.au. I filtered for rooms listed by existing tenants (not agencies), within 5km of UNSW, with bills included. I messaged twelve listings and got six replies. I viewed four properties in person before choosing.

When I found the right place, I: inspected the room and common areas carefully, met the housemates and had a conversation, asked to see a utility bill to verify they actually lived there, read the subletting agreement before signing, and paid my bond only after signing — and the head tenant lodged it with NSW Fair Trading the same day (I have the receipt).

The three-question rule

Before paying anything to anyone about housing, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Have I physically seen this property?

2. Have I met the person I'm paying in person?

3. Is there a signed lease or subletting agreement?

If the answer to any of these is no, don't pay. The housing market is competitive but not so competitive that you need to pay sight unseen. Anyone who says you do is either scamming you or operating with extreme negligence — neither is a landlord you want.

If you think you've been scammed

Report it immediately to ScamWatch (scamwatch.gov.au) and your bank. If you've transferred money, call your bank immediately — they have fraud recovery processes that are most effective in the first 24 hours. Contact your state police as well. You're unlikely to recover the money but your report prevents others from being victimised.