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HUGE NUMBERS OF scam posts advertising housing for rent or sale are being hosted on Irish Facebook communities.
Amid an ongoing nationwide housing crisis, these posts appear to be preying on people’s desperation by offering low rents or house prices. The headline costs often appear alongside stories explaining why the rents are so low, such as a previous resident was suddenly taken into care.
The purpose of these ads appears to be to trick users into clicking on dodgy websites which then steal their personal information.
Having just one example of such an ad, The Journal was able to find scores more of the posts in Irish Facebook communities by using tell-tale terms found in the post’s text.
For example, many of the posts displayed the asking price for the properties in dollars, or used phrases that are unfamiliar in Irish property ads, such as describing the “water closet”, or advertising that “trash is included in the rent”.
Some ads also mention “Section 8″, a United States rental assistance programme that does not exist in Ireland, or running “credit checks”, a process that is common in America, but which landlords in Ireland cannot legally do.
Most of the ads follow very similar formats.
“Still Available!!,” begins one such ad posted on the Facebook group ‘For Sale in Limerick’ on Wednesday.
“Rent to Own. Price: $550. 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in the area, estimated cost $550 per month. Stove and refrigerator included, Gas heat and trash is included in rent.
“Conveniently located near shopping center and it is in a safe neighbourhood. All pets allowed.”
Another, almost identical ad, was posted to the Facebook group ‘Dublin | Rent Houses Flats Rooms Apartments Studios’.
These Facebook groups have more than 100,000 members between them, and both allow non-mbembers to make posts.
“Rent to Own Home. $550/Month,” that ad, posted on 18 February, begins. “3-bedrooms, 2-Bath rooms, Recently painted house with new appliances and upgrades! ready for a new owner.
“-Located near shopping center
“-Parking Space Available!
“-All Pets allowed”
That ad features a wooden-clad house in a forested area, with the first-floor front door accessible by stairs, as the ground floor appears to be dedicated to a garage.
This building, as with many of the homes shown in the scam posts, are not typical structures found in Ireland, where horizontal wood cladding a rare choice for a small, cheap, Irish home.
Other photos include large front porches, or street numbers in the thousands — common in parts of America, though unlikely in Ireland.
Other ads were found on Facebook groups catering to counties Armagh, Clare, Down, Dublin, Limerick, Louth, Tipperary, Meath, Monaghan, as well as groups created for foreign nationals in Ireland.
With these tell-tale signs of being disingenuous may seem obvious, these giveaways are what enabled The Journal to find dozens of examples. Scam ads that were crafted with fewer faults would have gone undetected.
Similar rental Facebook scams have been reported for years, prompting multiple Garda investigations.
In some of these cases, scammers claimed that the property was being used as a short-term rental, but asked renters to send money, promising they could move in once the current let was over.
More than 10% of international students said that they had been a victim of an accommodation scam while in Ireland, according to a survey released last year.
Almost all the scam property posts in Irish Facebook groups directed people interested in the property to click on a shortlink. In many cases, clicking on this link led to websites created from templates, supposedly of real-estate agents. No other online presence was found for these supposed companies.
Clicking on links within these sites prompted the internet browsers to redirect, warning: “Your connection is not private. Attackers might be trying to steal your information”.
In January, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced it would reduce content management on its platforms, including stopping the use of American third-party factcheckers, who help to detect these scam posts and warn Facebook’s safety teams.
The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
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