Scammers are booking a Dublin short-term let and advertising the rooms on Daft.ie

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Scammers appear to be booking the property on Booking.com and then posting ads for rooms on Daft.ie to unsuspecting would-be renters.

A STUDENT HAS been scammed out of €1,400 in a rental scam involving a Dublin property used in an almost identical hoax just two months earlier.

Daniel, a Portuguese student who was due to begin a degree at Trinity College Dublin, believed he had secured a room at the Crumlin property after viewing it in person and paying a deposit and his first month’s rent.

He had originally found the room on Daft.ie. 

However, the property is available purely as a short-term holiday accommodation for a period of days or months on Booking.com, and those who showed Daniel around had no apparent right to rent it out.

The same address was used in June to scam a software engineer of almost €2,000 after he responded to a room advertised on Daft.ie, in a case previously reported by The Irish Times.

The property’s owner told the paper he was “horrified” that it had been used in the scam. Booking.com said it would review that case and could block the customer involved from making future reservations.

Éamonn McEleney, whose deceased brother’s estate owns the property, said the repeat incident raises questions about the checks carried out by rental platforms, and that it is “awful” that this has happened to another person.

How the scam operates

Daniel had already attended around 10 viewings while searching for a room ahead of the academic year when he responded to a man called ‘Jedidah’, who advertised a €900 room with an en suite bathroom on Daft.ie.

Although it was outside his ideal price range, Daniel decided to view it given the rental market. Jedidah told him over WhatsApp that his brother ‘Marcus’ would show him around on 19 August.

Daniel said he was surprised to find “a bit of a run-down place” but when Marcus arrived “he seemed like a ncie enough guy”. 

The building has a sign outside that says ‘Christian Secular Foundation’, which is located on the ground floor of the building. The foundation has no connection to the alleged scam. 

After the viewing, Jedidah texted Daniel to say Marcus had been ‘fond’ of him. When Daniel said he had chosen another room for €800, Jedidah offered him a smaller room for €700.

Daniel asked for his deposit back on the other room and transferred €1,400 – the majority of his savings – to an account under the name Lauren K, whom Jedidah said was his mother. 

When Daniel contacted Jedidah the following day about moving his belongings in, replies became infrequent. On the Sunday before he was due to move, the WhatsApp account blocked him.

“I realised I’d been scammed, which I was shocked by, as the man had really made it seem as though he lived there, and I had even asked for a contract with a handwritten signature in an attempt to protect myself,” he said.

Daniel then discovered the property was listed on Booking.com and contacted McEleney.

McEleney told The Journal that the property had previously been targeted in a similar incident and that family members were now monitoring who came and went.

“It could be the same person carrying out the scam,” he said.

He said prospective tenants should ask to see identification from people conducting viewings and argued that Daft.ie should verify that advertisers own properties or have permission to rent them out.

“They should ask for some documentation that the person that’s showing the flat owns it or has got a right to operate it,” he said.

McEleney also believes those behind the scams may be using short-term bookings to gain access to properties before directing prospective tenants there.

“They don’t give any address, I think, as far as I know,” he said. “They advertise something on Sundrive Road, and then they lead them there.”

He said platforms should do more to establish whether advertisers have a legitimate connection to properties.

“Obviously Daft are taking ads from people in fictitious names with no property, and basically it’s easy enough to check who owns the property,” he said. “And they’re not doing it. And they should be doing the checks really.”

Student plans to leave Ireland

Daniel has reported the incident to gardaí, Booking.com and Daft.ie.

He said he had been told his best chance of recovering the money was for gardaí to trace those responsible, but contact from gardaí had since gone cold.

After staying on an air mattress at a friend’s house in recent weeks, Daniel has decided to leave Ireland because of the financial strain.

“I don’t understand how this could happen twice with the same property, and how there is so little recourse in Ireland and so little chance to get your money back if something like this happens,” he said.

He said other countries with competitive rental markets use platforms where deposits are held by a third party until tenants confirm they have access to the property.

“I think something like that should be used here,” he said, adding that Ireland’s highly competitive rental market made it vulnerable to scams.
Daft.ie and Booking.com have been contacted for comment.

Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with Daft.ie publisher Distilled Media Group.