{"id":88782,"date":"2018-08-16T13:35:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T11:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=88782"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:04","slug":"undercover-with-the-student-housing-swindlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/08\/16\/undercover-with-the-student-housing-swindlers\/","title":{"rendered":"Undercover with the student housing swindlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Facebook groups for students seeking housing in Rotterdam, dozens of accounts have been set up to cheat new students out of their money. How do these swindlers operate? This summer, EM editors Feba and Tim went undercover in the world of student housing fraud.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBas van der Schot<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

At the end of the Dordtselaan, 18 year-old student Hillary Zhang from China sits on a bench in the sun. It\u2019s in the middle of the summer and she has just arrived in Rotterdam. While still in Peking, she was looking for accommodations in Rotterdam and she made an appointment for the handover of keys to a house at Dordtselaan 245b. She signed a contract, transferred a 1,200 euro deposit and received an official receipt. But in the end, the landlord didn\u2019t show up for the appointment. She emailed him, telephoned and sent Facebook messages. No response. It turns out Dordtselaan 245b doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Hillary didn\u2019t really lose her 1,200 euro. Because she doesn\u2019t exist. We created her persona to investigate how swindlers operate in Rotterdam\u2019s student housing market. This type of fraud is common and it\u2019s usually international students who are the victims.<\/p>\n

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Feba\/Hillary calls the man who rented her a non-existent house, to no avail.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTim Ficheroux<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t

Jimmy\u2019s story is a good example. He was waiting for the keys to be handed over at the end of June. He had paid two month\u2019s rent and a deposit in advance: around 1,500 euro. At the time the meeting was supposed to take place, there were nine people waiting for a key. All of them had paid 1,500 euro in advance. None of them got a key. And we spoke with Taufiq. While still in Indonesia, he paid a 1,000 euro deposit fee. He filled in a registration form, signed a contract, and never heard anything afterwards about the house. The 1,000 euro was gone, but what was even worse, he still didn\u2019t have a place to live just before he moved to Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to imagine that international students fall for this type of fraud. Rotterdam\u2019s housing market has picked up considerably in recent years with an explosive increase in the number of international students. A toxic combination and a fertile breeding ground for swindlers. Student housing is scarce in Rotterdam<\/a> and the university only reserves enough housing for a small fraction of international students, and the housing corporations have waiting lists. The fact that Dutch students aren\u2019t always keen on having a housemate from abroad, and that it\u2019s very difficult to view a house or be interviewed for a room in a student residence while still living in Canada, China or Indonesia, only adds to their difficulties. To make matters worse, the fake ads are found in the same place as legitimate ads.<\/p>\n

It started in June of this year: desperate international students looking for student housing through various Facebook groups. These same Facebook groups are full of ads for rental housing, but the majority look quite shady. Advertisers don\u2019t state the prices or addresses, there are no photographs, and the messages are full of spelling mistakes. If you dig a bit deeper, you\u2019ll come across what appear to be fake profiles without friends in Rotterdam. Despite all this, there are responses under the messages such as \u2018interested\u2019, \u2018pm\u2019, \u2018still available?\u2019 left by prospective students.<\/p>\n

Dozens of swindlers<\/h2>

In just a few days we find dozens of these dubious ads. And this isn\u2019t even the high point of the hysteria yet. Even more desperate students will appear in July, along with even more of these types of suspect ads. In order to find out how the swindlers operate, we decided to pretend to be an international student looking for a place to live in Rotterdam: she is 18, from Peking, and her name is Hillary Zhang. We create a corresponding email address and Facebook profile to use in our communications with the deceitful advertisers.<\/p>\n

We discover at least 10 advertisers offering the exact same advertisement in university cities all over the world. For example, take the ad from \u2018Meyer M Babs\u2019. This profile places identical advertisements in Facebook groups for people seeking accommodations in Amsterdam, Toronto, San Diego, Maastricht, London, Dublin, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Brussels, New York and Houston.<\/p>\n

\"Facebookadvertenties<\/p>\n

Viewing<\/h2>

An advertisement from Angela B Moore is similar. We encounter her in Facebook groups for people seeking housing in Groningen, Tilburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen, Dublin, Li\u00e8ge, Brussels and Prague. Each time with exactly the same ads.<\/p>\n

Undercover as Hillary Zhang, we contact both advertisers. We say that we are looking for housing in Rotterdam and we saw their ad on Facebook. But as we don\u2019t know anything about the apartment yet, we ask for the address, the price and pictures. Angela B Moore responds within 8 hours. She doesn\u2019t send any photographs, but we are given a detailed description of the house. She promises us a fully furnished apartment in Zuid at \u2018Dortselaan\u2019 (the correct name should be \u2018Dordtselaan\u2019) 245b. The price for this accommodation is 500 euro per month, inclusive.<\/p>\n

It sounds good so we ask if we can view the place. That is possible and we are told to come by on Monday 2 July at 19:00. The address seems to be legitimate according to Google Maps. Very close to Zuidplein at the end of the Dordtselaan, though we can\u2019t find it using Google Street View.<\/p>\n

Alarm bells should be going off at this point: no pictures of the apartment, a spelling mistake in the address, poor English in her messages. But as a na\u00efve and desperate international student, you might be able to look past all this. And if you hadn\u2019t seen the advertisements in other cities, you might actually think it\u2019s a real apartment. So we confirm the appointment for Monday, 2 July at 19:00 at Dordtselaan 245b.<\/p>\n

Now comes the first attempt at getting us to make an advance payment: \u201cI think that will be best for you to secure it otherwise I may not guarantee that the apartment will still be available if you do not secure it first and by the time I get back it can be reserve for you.\u201d What? Angela proposes we contact the landlord by email to reserve the apartment, which would cost us a cool 1,200 euro. She tells us that many people are interested and the landlord will rent to whoever reserves the apartment first. She gives us the email address for one \u2018Mr Robert\u2019: berthelmerobertme@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Owner is abroad<\/h2>

In the meantime, \u2018Meyer M Babs\u2019 has also responded, saying there is an apartment available for rent at the Beukelsdijk in Rotterdam-West. We say we are interested and the trickery begins almost immediately: \u201cI am glad <\/em>you are interested in renting my apartment but presently I am not available in Rotterdam for now as i am presently in Massachusetts now to complete my work with my company and i am here with my keys . The main reason why I am renting my apartment because I don\u2019t want it to be dusty and rough whenever I am coming back to Rotterdam.<\/em>\u201d He promises to send the keys by FedEx as soon as we transfer two month\u2019s rent and a deposit \u2013 1,700 euro in total.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Een lijst van afbeeldingen<\/h2>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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