Nathalie thought she would do a credit check to get a viewing of a student apartment in Uppsala.
Instead, she gave fraudsters full access to her savings account.
– I saw that all my saved money was gone and panicked, she says.
For a year, Nathalie, 20, worked to save money. The plan was that she would have a savings capital alongside her student funds to avoid larger loans.
After being accepted as a reserve to a program at Uppsala University in July, she started looking for an apartment.
– I got in touch with a woman and we wrote a little back and forth. She said she worked as a broker and that she wanted to do a credit check, which I personally thought was good, says Nathalie.
Bought bitcoins for the money
The woman then sent fake pictures from a credit reporting company with a QR code. Just a few minutes later, she had managed to buy bitcoins for all the money in Nathalie’s savings account, a total of SEK 99,000.
– I panicked and tried to save the money. Then I was blocked from my bank ID and thought that now it’s over. Later I found out that she also took out a loan in my name, says Nathalie.
The woman never had time to buy anything from the SEK 5,000 loan, but Nathalie still hasn’t seen a glimpse of the SEK 99,000 that disappeared in connection with the fake credit report.
She has reported the incident to both the police and her bank.
– The police have closed the case and said that it is almost impossible to trace when someone buys bitcoins, so now it is up to my bank, says Nathalie.
Fraudsters adapt
For a long time, it has been common knowledge among the police that fraudsters post fake housing ads and then ask students to transfer a deposit.
– There have been two approaches. Either you pay a deposit after you have been to an apartment showing but which may actually be a home that someone rented on Airbnb, or you are in such a hurry that you have to transfer the deposit even before the showing. In some cases they also ask for an advance rent, says Björn Seeth at the police’s national fraud centre.
The approach is well known to the police, but recently the police have noticed that fraudsters have also started asking for a credit check.
– They change their approach all the time. What we see now is that people want to do a credit check with bank ID before showing an apartment. It may sound reasonable to many, but what you are actually doing is giving away the login to your internet bank, says Björn Seeth and continues:
– Then you can empty the account completely. It’s really, really bad.
More common at the start of studies
The police have no statistics on how common it is for students to fall victim to fraud in connection with apartments.
Björn Seeth estimates that there are about 100 cases a month.
– It actually goes on all year, but there is always a certain increase in July and August. Then there is always stress among students. They receive notification of admission in mid-July and studies start at the end of August. These fraudsters naturally follow the market.
FACT This is how you protect yourself against fraudsters
Do not pay deposits to get a viewing.
Never use the bank ID at the request of the lessor and do not give out information from the bank box.
Find out who owns the apartment, who you are meeting and that the apartment can be sublet before transferring advance rents or deposits. This can be checked via the landlord or the housing association.
Source: National Fraud Center
Read moreFACTSThree ways to be cheated
Before showing: The scammer requests a deposit and/or advance rent to conduct a showing, with various explanations such as that he or she is in another location and needs to travel to show the apartment.
Credit check: The fraudster asks the speculator to scan QR codes with their bank ID several times with different explanations, which ultimately leads to the fraudster taking over and emptying the bank accounts.
After viewing: The fraudster requests a deposit or advance rent in order for you, as a speculator, to gain access to the apartment.
In the case of a deposit, it is often a matter of a few thousand kroner, in the case of advance rents around 30,000 and in the case of a credit check, it is about everything that is saved.
Source: National Fraud Center
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