Rental scams: How even checking land registry is not enough. Source: Receptionist Vectors by Vecteezy.
Rental scams: How even checking land registry is not enough. Source: Receptionist Vectors by Vecteezy.

Rental scams: How even checking land registry is not enough

07/08/2026

There are lots of scams on the internet, especially in Facebook groups. These places are full of false adverts for rental housing / flats.

Some of them are easy to expose / spot. Some of them are very hard to expose / spot.

Low rental prices and bad language of a person offering rentals are typical signs of false adverts. There are also very sophisticated scams like a false realtor, who met with prospective tenants.

They all have one thing in common. Scammers behind false adverts concentrate their efforts on people who are in a desperate need to rent a place to live. They are also interested in people who don’t have enough money to pay a “market” rent. Another category of interesting people to fool (prospective tenants) for them are those whom owners of properties wouldn’t rent a place (for any bizarre illegal reasons, owner can make up nowadays.)

It is important to realize from the point of prospective tenants that making decisions under psychological pressure cause outcomes which are not in their interest. Scammers exploit it. That is the reason why they can cheat you. It is a form of social engineering.

The article is about an exposed scam and a scammer, how the scam was exposed and why the police is not helpful in such cases and cannot deal with such scams preventively.

There is an interactive price map of Ministry of Finance where you can check what the real prices of rents are.

Some information in the article is hidden under asterisks to safeguard privacy of concerned parties, indexation of webpages and scraping of AI bots.

What the scam looks like

You come across a promising advert for a property rental in Facebook groups about property rentals and sharing a flat.

You write an e-mail to the scammer with additional questions related to the property or without:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

The first suspicious thing which occurs is that instead of replying to your questions, you receive a template email including a set of question from the scammer. The email also includes a fascinating personal story why the scammer rents the flat and where he (a fictious owner – the scammer) resides:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

You reply to his questions:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

Afterwards you receive a reply:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

In the next email you would like to arrange a viewing of the flat:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

A problem arises. The scammer writes you about cogent / convincing reasons, why it is necessary to pay a reservation fee in advance before a viewing. He exploits your emotions of thoughtfulness to circumstances of fellow human beings. To assert trustworthiness of the offer, he sends you an additional video taken at the flat as a proof he doesn’t lie:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

The video sent by the scammer.

Not being able to arrange a viewing and have the viewing in person without paying in advance is the primary warning sign.

If you carry on sending emails with the scammer, he will send you a lease contract. When you suggest an alternative to the viewing in a form of meeting at the place where the scammer is supposed to reside (Opava), he will agree initially. In the end, the communication with him dies down and nothing comes out of it:

→ Click to show the original email conversation

There are also very sophisticated scams like a false realtor, who met with prospective tenants and thus it is possible that even meeting up with a fictious owner / realtor is not enough to proof it is a genuine offer.

Checking Land registry isn’t enough

The scammer uses a land registry online search tool to find out names of property owners. In this case, it was a flat at Verdunska street in Prague 6. The scammer found out that the real name of the owner of the flat is Tomáš ********.

He created a fake e-mail address, tomas******** based on the information. We communicated together via the fake email address.

Thus, even checking the land register can be not enough.

Meeting up the then tenant

I suspected it was a possible scam, so I decided to visit the address. I rang a bell of the advertised flat. A the then tenant who was just moving out opened the door. The communication with the scammer was in English. I wanted to check if Mr Tomáš ******** speaks Czech, whether the then tenant had ever seen him in person and if the photos and the video which I received were false or genuine.

It is possible to misuse photos as well. Scammers search official websites with property rentals, download photos of flats and use them for scams.

The tenant confirmed that Tomáš ******** speaks Czech and that she had met him multiple times in person. She also told me that the photos and the video of the flat were fake.

The rental price offered by the scammer was 600 €. The real rent having been paid by the then tenant (rent + utilities + “services”) was 1 072 €.

The tenant shared with me that it had not been the first time this kind of a scam occurred with the flat. She told me it had occurred repetitively. It was also confirmed by a passing woman who lives in the same block of flats. The tenant informed a real estate agency taking care of renting the flat. She told me in her own words what the real estate agency told her: “When I told them, they played it down and said it was nonsense and that I should stop paying attention to it.”

I wanted to make a contact with the real owner Mr Tomáš *******. I gave my credentials to the tenant sharing my intention to write an article about the scam. She said she would pass the contact to the owner. I visited the flat on 30th June 2026 and haven’t got any messages for the owner (Publishing date: 7th August 2026).

Police didn’t investigate the case

I went to the police to report the case as a then occurring internet scam. Unfortunately, I was not successful with it because no offence has been committed.

Police officers whom I met with at a local department told me it could have only been investigated if an offence had been committed. The offence would have been committed if I had sent the money and an obligation (a flat being rented) would not have been fulfilled. If it had happened, it would have been an offence worth investigating.

Fourteen days after reporting it, I received a letter from the police informing me that an offence hasn’t been committed because I hadn’t sent the money to the scammer.

Not investigating the case really surprised me, because there is a report of the police investigating similar scam (more sophisticated) where money wasn’t defrauded however it fulfilled the description of an offence.

Where the scammer comes from

It is possible to find out where emails of scammers come from, from metadata of messages which are transmitted on the internet. I contacted Seznam.cz and was told that it is possible to check the metadata of emails in my own email box. It is attached to each email.

Based on the information in the metadata, I found the email came from Dublin, Ireland. However, the problem is that it was the metadata indicating the last server in the path towards my own email box. Imagine it as the last post office before you receive a letter to your home. If I wanted to find out more about the identity of the scammer, I would have to contact Google.

I also asked Seznam.cz to give me more information and a written confirmation of the email origin. However, I was told they couldn’t do it because of GDPR and safeguarding privacy of people.

To get more information (the metadata), it is necessary that either the police or courts ask for it while investigating a crime. Thus, I couldn’t carry on finding out where the villain comes from.

Villains have won again. I guess only Judge Dredd can fight it when we stand against Rico (the bad guy in the movie).

Primary causes of such high number of scams

The main causes why these scams occur is a very bad state of property market in the Czech Republic.

Things contributing to the crisis: Shortage of properties; Perceiving properties as an investment by investors and speculators; Short-term rental platforms like Airbnb; State-owned flats which are auctioned in public auction by private companies; General passivity and incapability of politicians to deal with the situation and so on. You can find out more about the causes and solutions in these articles: How to solve housing crisis, Housing crisis – statements by political parties and Tricky life of politicians.

Unfortunately, this crisis puts prospective tenants and people who would like to live at a better place than under the Charles Bridge (Even though with a good view. The only problem being pigeons shitting on you occasionally.) to a position which is not good for negotiating good terms with property owners. Then it is quite normal that rental seekers get under a lot of psychological pressure. The need of living under a roof is a need which cannot be abstained from. In such situations, rental seekers are more prone to be fooled by scammers and to go on with shadowy transactions.

How to solve it

The solution to the current crisis is to redress the current state of the property market. Scammers and scams are just consequences.

How not to be fooled

It is the most important not to make decisions when you are under pressure and you feel anxiety, anger, being manipulated and other negative emotions. Under such circumstances, one makes irrational decisions. It is better to put decisions off by 24 hours.

If there is something suspicions about an advert (a low price, bad communication capabilities of advertisers), it better to let such properties go.

While looking for a rental, it is advised to check who the real owner of a property is at a land registry online search tool to verify whether what you are told matches the reality.

Never pay any money in advance before a viewing. If an in-person viewing is not possible and an advertiser requires money in advance, it is a strong warning sign that it is a scam.

Since a false realtor, who met with prospective tenants scams have occurred it is advisable to check an identity card of the person trying to rent a flat to you before handing over any money.

While communicating with advertisers, owners of properties, observe how they behave, communicate and react.

Conclusion

As you have read in the article, neither checking the land registry or spotting bad language and grammar are sometimes not enough to verify that a rental is truly genuine.

That is the reason why it is necessary to observe and check the whole process from the first point of contact until sending money for warning signs (described above). The more warning signs appear, the higher probability of a scam.

If you are not sure whether an offer is genuine, it is always better to stick to the assumption that it is a scam. This way, you won’t lose any money.

However, if your intention is for an offence to occur so that the police can start investigating it and you want a scammer to be caught and you want to do something for the public good, I cannot force you not to do so, to send the money to the scammer (It is a joke, editor’s note).

Your own personal experience

There are many articles nowadays [article n. 1],  [article n. 2] which say that the primary signs to spot a scammer is bad grammar and language or putting you under psychological pressure by saying things like: “We have another 5 interested people apart from you.”, “Take a deposit/reservation fee with you at the viewing.” or that it is advised to check websites of real estate agencies.

I disagree with these statements. Trained scammers sit behind computers who don’t make language and grammar mistakes nowadays. Putting prospective tenants under psychological pressure has become new standard at viewings. Regularly telling you about a number of applicants before they show you a flat (On the way from the main entrance door to the door of a flat.)

When checking online presence of a real estate agency (websites), one must also be careful. It is not trustworthy anymore. Anybody can create a professional website nowadays. It is also possible to create fake email addresses and give yourself positive reviews on Google.

Who to trust? What to trust? As it has been mentioned in the article, it a combination of multiple aspects which must be evaluated during the whole process. It is important to take warning signs into account and be aware of psychological pressure being put on you and most importantly not to make decisions when under psychological pressure.

What is your experience with internet and rental scams, dealing with realtors and owners of flats? How would you deal with such problems? Write in the comment section below.

Břetislav Sobek

Břetislav Sobek

My name is Bretislav Sobek. I am curious and don’t understand new things. That is the reason why I ask, I write it down and post it.

I have written hundreds of emails to newspaper’s editorial offices. They have answered me once. They wrote me that if I wanted to write I should study journalism including a link to the right faculty. They said it was supposed to be the right place for me.

Others answered with a suspicion that I was a PR manager of a political party. I just wanted to inform my fellow citizens about what I think was important to them.

I applied for Journalists unions. They didn’t accept me and weren’t able to explain me why. The same went for another ten candidates.

And that’s the reason why I decided to set up my own newspaper and named myself a chief editor.

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