How to spot and avoid rental scams in the Netherlands

The Dutch rental market is tight, and scammers know it all too well. Precisely because house-hunters are under time pressure and desperate to find something, rental listings are a favourite target for fraud. Expats arriving from abroad are especially vulnerable: you often need to secure a place before you land, you may not yet have a Dutch bank account or BSN, and you cannot always pop by for a viewing. The trick is almost always the same: you are lured with a beautiful home at a suspiciously low price, and before you fully realise what is happening, you have transferred money for a property that does not exist or that the "landlord" has no right to rent out at all.

The good news is that rental fraud nearly always follows a recognisable pattern. Once you know the red flags, you can usually see through it within a few minutes. In this article we set out how rental scams work, what to watch for, and what to do if you do get caught out.

How rental fraud works in practice

Most rental fraud has a single goal: to get you to transfer money before you have anything concrete in hand. The home in the photos sometimes does not exist at all, or the photos have been stolen from a genuine sale or rental listing. In other cases the property is real, but it is being "rented out" by someone with no right to do so — for example an empty building, or a home whose real owner knows nothing about it.

A few common scenarios:

• The phantom apartment. A gorgeous flat in a prime location for well below the market price. As soon as you show interest, the landlord turns out to be "abroad" and you cannot view it. You have to transfer the deposit and the first month first, and then he will send "the keys by post".
• The keys-by-courier trick. A variant in which you pay for the keys to be sent via a (fake) courier or delivery service. The money is gone, and the keys never arrive.
• The double let. A property is "rented" to several people at once, all of whom pay a deposit. Or a (sub)tenant secretly sublets it without permission and disappears with your money.
• The fake agent. A "broker" or letting agency asks for registration or agency fees upfront to give you access to a secret pool of listings that turns out not to exist.

The most important red flags

A single warning sign is not always proof of fraud — but several at once almost always are. Run through this checklist before you transfer a single euro or send a copy of your ID.

1. You are asked to pay without having seen the home

This is by far the most important signal. Never transfer money for a home you have not viewed from the inside and whose landlord you have not met. No legitimate landlord asks you to pay the deposit or rent before you have seen the property and signed a contract. "Pay first, then the keys" is the most commonly used scenario in rental fraud. If you are moving from abroad and genuinely cannot view in person, insist on a live video tour and a video call with the landlord first — never simply wire money on the strength of photos.

2. The landlord is unreachable or "abroad"

A landlord who consistently avoids meeting in person is suspicious. The story is often that work or a move has taken him abroad, so he is renting the place out remotely. Sometimes there is a "cousin" or "manager" who is supposed to handle the viewing, but who pulls out at the last minute. If someone is happy to receive your money but not to meet you, that is a clear alarm bell.

3. The price is too good to be true

Scammers lure you with a price well below the market level — a spacious apartment in Amsterdam or Utrecht for a few hundred euros less than comparable homes. So do your homework on what is realistic for the neighbourhood and the type of property. A listing that is wildly out of line on price is either fraud, or something else is not right.

4. You are being pressured

Haste is the scammer's weapon. "There are ten other interested parties, so you need to pay the reservation today." An honest landlord may also be busy because of the tight market, but will never force you to transfer money before a viewing or contract. If you feel you are being rushed into paying, that is exactly the moment to take a step back.

Always verify for yourself

Do not blindly trust what the listing says. A few simple checks expose most fake adverts.

• Run a reverse image search on the photos. If the same photos appear elsewhere on the internet, with a different property, in a different city or on a home that is for sale, they have been stolen.
• Look up the address. If the same address appears on several sites with different landlords or prices, something is off.
• Check the landlord or agent. A professional agent is registered with the Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) and has a findable office and phone number. No online presence at all is a warning sign.
• Call or video call. Ask for a phone call or a video tour. Anyone who avoids all personal contact has something to hide.
• Ask for the tenancy contract in advance. Read it carefully for errors, odd clauses or payment requests. Our rental contract checklist before you sign will help you do this.

What is allowed — and what is not

Many house-hunters do not know exactly which costs a landlord may charge, and scammers exploit precisely that gap. As an expat unfamiliar with Dutch rules, you are an easy mark — so it pays to know the basics, which are fairly clear on this point.

• Deposit: a landlord may ask for a security deposit, but since the Affordable Rent Act (Wet betaalbare huur, 2024) it is legally capped at twice the basic monthly rent. A landlord who demands three or four months' deposit is breaking the rules. You can read more in getting your deposit back: your rights and the steps to take.
• Agency fees: an agent or broker acting for both the landlord and you may not charge you, the tenant, any agency, contract or registration fees. This "ban on double agency fees" is often broken. If you are asked to pay registration or agency fees upfront, be extra cautious.
• Service charges: a landlord may pass on service charges, but only based on actual costs and with an annual settlement. Vague, round "service charges" with no breakdown are a warning sign. Read service charges explained if you want to know what is reasonable.
• Rent level: under the Affordable Rent Act, a large share of homes falls under a maximum rent based on the points system (WWS). An excessive rent is not fraud in the criminal sense, but you can have it assessed by the Rent Tribunal (Huurcommissie).

Important: the fact that a landlord should follow these rules does not mean a fraudster will. But if someone asks you to pay in advance, demands an unexplained high deposit or wants registration fees, that is all the more reason to be suspicious.

Protect your personal data

Scams are not always about your money — sometimes your identity is the target. With a copy of your passport, your BSN and your signature, criminals can commit fraud in your name. So never hand over an unprotected copy of your ID without thinking.

• Only send documents once you are certain who you are dealing with, ideally after the viewing.
• On any copy of your ID, always black out your BSN and passport photo, and write on it what the copy is for, who it is for and the date. Use the Dutch government's KopieID app for this.
• Be cautious about sharing payslips and bank statements through unsecured channels.

To learn which information a landlord may reasonably request in the first place, see what a landlord is allowed to ask a tenant.

What to do if you have been scammed

If you have become a victim, act quickly:

1. Stop any further payments and keep all the evidence: the listing, screenshots of the conversation, emails, payment confirmations and the bank account number.
2. Contact your bank immediately. A recent transfer can sometimes still be reversed or blocked.
3. Report it to the police. For online fraud this can often be done digitally. State the bank account number and all the details of the "landlord".
4. Check the bank account number via the website of the Fraud Helpdesk (Fraudehelpdesk); known fraudulent accounts are sometimes already registered there.
5. Warn the platform where you saw the listing, so the advert can be removed and others are spared the same experience.

Searching safely in a busy market

The irony is that the very haste created by the tight market plays straight into scammers' hands. The more pressure you are under, the more tempting a "too good" home appears — and that pressure is even greater when you are relocating from abroad on a deadline. The best defence, therefore, is calm and a broad, reliable supply of listings, so you do not have to jump at the first advert that sounds too good.

An aggregator like HuurScanner bundles the current rental supply from dozens of letting sites in one place and alerts you the moment a new listing appears that matches your profile. That way you see the real homes faster, you do not have to chase individual adverts in desperation, and you can more easily judge what a realistic price is for a neighbourhood. If you want to be among the first to respond to new, legitimate listings, read responding faster to rental homes or see how HuurScanner Premium gives you priority with instant alerts.

In summary

Rental fraud follows fixed patterns: you are asked to pay before the viewing, the landlord is "abroad", the price is too good and you are being rushed. The golden rule is simple: never pay for a home you have not seen and whose landlord you have not met. Verify the photos and the address, check who the landlord is, know your rights around the deposit and agency fees, and protect your personal data. Do that, and you are almost certain to stay out of the trap — however tight the market may be.