I haven't seen this come up yet as a potential scam, so I wanted to know if this is a fishy listing. I responded to an apartment ad through the UZH Marktplatz (I'm a PhD student), and the owner of the flat told me that if we reach an agreement, the entire long-term rental process will be conducted through AirBNB (the viewing, the necessary documents, and all future payments). The owner of the flat says he is based in London and has already wasted time on a potential tenant, who ended up cancelling at the last minute, so he does not want to fly out just to let me in to see the place. Is AirBNB able to act as a legitimate broker in Switzerland?
It could be legit, but there have been scams through airbnb. Just make sure you don't send any money without seeing the place first and whoever shows it to you confirms that the "landlord" is who he says he is.
You will have to have some form of sub let contract for the authorities though. It's not regular, so tread very carefully.
Well, now I'm about 80% sure it's a scam, since the owner is saying I need to deposit the first month of rent and the warranty to Airbnb for visiting the apartment. I don't think Airbnb can act in escrow in this manner, and I'm not about to send money anywhere before seeing an actual apartment.
It's definitely a scam. AirBnB will NEVER ask you to pay upfront for visiting the property to view it. Additionally, ONLY pay AirBnB within their site. NEVER send them a SWIFT (wire) payment to somebody outside of AirBnB.
One final thought... If you believe it may be fraudulent, AirBnB (and future customers) appreciate that you report it to AirBnB Customer Service; this way, AirBnB can review the conversation and STOP the fraud from happening to somebody else. I know this because I reported a fraudulent host, and AirBnB removed the fake host to prevent fraud from occurring to people who may fall for the fraud.
Keep away from AirBnB. If you cancel the booking, you usually get the landlord's rental returned, but AirBnB charge a fee and refuse to refund the fee.
There was a case in the US where AirBnB refused to give out details of the landlord when a woman was abducted at a B&B. The woman phoned her parents, but AirBnB refused to give out the details of where she was staying. I have forgotten the exact details, but AirBnB apologised.
This is a scam. A working colleague of mine was in contact with a lady who told her the exact same story about being based in London, and that she had wasted time and money travelling back and forth. That is why the whole deal was going to be handled by this agency Airbnb. She was supposed to pay the rent before she could even see the flat. Don't fall for it.
I’d stay away from AirBnB totally. They did a piece on the BBC’s Watchdog programme last night, there are scammers all over it and they take little action, even when told about a particular ad being a scam.
Scam. I also contacted one of those. Same story, except that the supposed landlord was based in Helsinki. Apartment was in Kilchberg, ZH. I realised it was a scam because I could not find any building matching the pictures they had in their ad, at the address they gave. Nothing even close to it. When I raised this to the "landlord"she stopped answering.
Yes, that’s similar to what the Watchdog programme was highlighting. Scammers had taken pictures off the internet that weren’t even located in the same place. In one of them, there were two ads with exactly the same pics, one legit the other a scam, and AirBnB hadn’t even noticed! Yet they’re supposed to vet these ads before they’re posted.
Another obvious pointer was that you had to pay them direct and not use AirBnB’s payment system.