Fraudsters trick students looking for housing

Published 23 July 2024 at 15.05

Domestic. The police issue a warning on their website about housing fraud aimed at students.

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The police in the North police region are currently working on a number of cases regarding housing fraud, where people have been tricked into paying advance rent on a property that does not exist.

Many prospective students at universities and colleges are currently looking for housing. Something that fraudsters are not slow to exploit.

– Every year, false advertisements appear in Umeå, the most common are probably the larger university towns, but we also have it here, says Ulrica Heldebro, group manager for fraud crimes in Västerbotten.

Last year, 1,759 advertising frauds were reported in the police region North, according to figures from the Crime Prevention Council. Exactly how many of them involved housing fraud is difficult to answer because there is no separate criminal code. But one thing is clear. The type of crime increases during the beginning of the term.

– It is very difficult to look at an advertisement if it is a fraud. Often the ad looks credible, it is clearly written and there are good pictures of the apartment. If you start writing with the person, it often inspires confidence. Contracts also exist, says Ulrica Heldebro.

At the end of May, two young men were sentenced in Umeå district court to one year and six months in prison for gross fraud, after having deceived several people with false advertisements with associated false contract.

– It is vulnerable target groups that are affected. Students who may just be barely making ends meet for the rent. In some cases, they have also canceled their second-hand contracts because they thought they had received a first-hand contract, says Ulrica Heldebro.

– Then we have the poor people who live at the addresses that are published in the advertisements. They are robbed of the security of their own home when the victims of the fraudsters call or even go to their homes, whereupon they become upset when they realize that they have been deceived.

According to the police, there are warning flags to look out for when looking for an apartment or home to rent:

* The fake ads, which can be found both on websites and on social media, often have a demand for one or more months' rent in in advance or in deposit. The landlord states that many people want the apartment and therefore wants a deposit to know that you will really take it.

* The apartment has an attractive location and a very low rent.

A tip is to save the image in the ad to perform an image search on the web. Does the image appear in more ads? In the same way, you can search for parts of the ad text to see if it appears in more ads.

– Often there are many people who write and pay for the same ad, so the fastest way to stop the fraudster is to report the ad to, for example, the current social media platform or sales site. Then there will be an immediate stop so that more people are not affected, says Ulrica Heldebro.

– If the advertisement seems too good to be true, it probably is. As soon as you are affected, you must report it to us.