Scam Alert

There are many housing scams active in The Netherlands



Here are some tips to try to avoid them. Be careful and stay safe, some of these crooks are quite dangerous and will even try to steal your identity to run other scams.

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How to avoid housing scams in The Netherlands

  • Never send your ID or money to a potential landlord in advance.
  • Fake or very recent profiles offering cheap housing are most likely international housing scammers that target mainly expats.
  • Don’t do business with landlords who only offer an email address, a mobile number and/or a facebook/linkedin page. Dare to ask for more information to establish who you are dealing with, such as an actual business address or residential address. Ask for proof of ID (does not have to be an ID card a library card or something similar is fine), check it, do an internet search about this person or company. Be aware that ID copies sent via email can be fakes. This often occurs in combination with requests to transfer money via Western Union or similar services.
  • If they get impatient with you and try to hurry or even pressure you to make a commitment chances are you are dealing with a scammer.
  • Ask if you can register with the city council at the address. If you can't, that’s a big red flag. This rental is most likely an illegal sublet, or something else however you risk getting evicted at any moment of your stay or you can get even fined.
  • Avoid cash transactions on the street with some friend of the landlord that handles his affairs. Avoid cash transactions period use a bank tranfser whenever possible.
  • Record everything you can record, build up a file just in case you need it later for the police if you get scammed even after taking precautions.
  • Google everything, all phone numbers, names, email addresses, social profile your potential landlord gave you. See what turns up
  • Ask for a phone number where you can call or WhatsApp the landlord, if it's not a +31 (Dutch) number it's a red flag. +316 (Mobile) +3185(VoIP) +3120(Amsterdam) +3171(Leiden) +3170(The Hague)
  • Avoid paying before you actually see the property first
  • If you have seen the property, double check the given address was not listed on a site like airbnb, the scammer might have rented it just for a fake viewing.
  • If the so called landlord is out of the country and will send you the keys via postal mail it's a scam.
  • If it's too good to be true, below market price or instant offer minutes after you post online from someone that does not live in the Netherlands it's most likely a scam.
  • This list is by no means complete, if you believe we should add something on this list or if you have any more questions or doubts if you are dealing with a scammer, please let us know using contact form below.

Our foundation volunteers watch over some facebook housing groups against scammers:
Amsterdam Housing (new) | Leiden Housing (since November 2022)


scamalert.orgn.nl site is a project for fun, educational and informational purposes by volunteers of the Dutch Stichting Lucifer foundation consider to leave a donation if you believe this was educational to you or you found it funny enough to make you crack a smile.

Disclaimer: Take the contents of this site with a grain of salt, it can be used as a prank since anybody can fill in some values and drop a link anywhere just as a prank or maybe who knows as a serious warning. Nothing is truly stored on a server so we can't just remove a so called offending page because there is none to be removed, you should have the published link removed instead from the platform it was posted on. In the end it's up to the reader to investigate if someone truly is scammer.

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