David* is no internet novice and is smart to online scams, but admits he is so desperate to find a rental in Perth’s frenzied market that his guard lowered slightly while searching for low-cost single-bedroom apartments on Facebook.
After attending home inspections shoulder-to-shoulder with sometimes hundreds of other people and struggling to get cut through with agents in today’s “cold markets”, David – who asked his full name not be used so as not to hamper his search for a rental – decided the risk was worth the effort.
“You never know,” he said.
But after conversing with the would-be “private landlords” behind the listings, patterns began emerging.
Similar wording used in conversations, making excuses for why properties couldn’t be inspected, and the same emails being provided on different listings, all building up to a final request: “Send through hundreds of dollars in the form of a bond or security deposit and the property is yours.”
David figured out most of the low-cost rentals on Facebook Marketplace were scams early on, but that didn’t prevent the gut-punch feeling he got when an avenue of hope turned out to be another dead end.
“I get angry that they’re taking advantage of desperate people who are probably in financial distress,” he said.
Facebook Marketplace is awash with scam rental listings across Perth, preying on desperate renters struggling to get a roof over their heads amidst a housing crisis.
The listings David came across and the conversations with the scammers, shared with this masthead, reveal they used professional images stolen from past legitimate home sale or rental listings on sites like realestate.com.au or Domain.
The listings are below market price, with one supposedly offering a modern one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment overlooking South Beach in North Coogee for $350 per week – all bills included.
The profiles behind the scams will be recently created and have few or no friends, and often the only activity on Facebook will be other rental listings.
Once the conversation moves to Messenger or WhatsApp, often the scammer will rattle off semi-coherent rental legalese and warn there were other potential renters interested before eventually asking for a bond payment or security deposit to secure the property.
A number provided on a bogus rental agreement sent to David was disconnected when this masthead attempted to call it.
Plenty of West Australians have fallen for the trap.
Consumer Protection acting commissioner Owen Kelly revealed that in the past three years, almost $200,000 was lost from rental scams, including $50,000 in 2025 and $100,000 in 2023.
Kelly said the biggest individual loss in 2025 was $5835 in April.
He said the scammers often encouraged people to drive past the real property, but made excuses for why they couldn’t inspect it properly.
“Once you’ve gone past now you’re emotionally invested in it, and you’re desperate for a house, what will happen then is, they’ll say, ‘great, we can sign you up for this, we need to see a bond payment. We need to see your rent in advance, whatever it might be’,” he said.
“It’s one thing to lose money but to lose money to not having a house that maybe this is the first one out of 50 that you’ve looked at or something – it’d be devastating.”
Scammers are targeting renters at a time when the market is in the depths of a crisis.
The December vacancy rate sat at 2.6 per cent, while prices are historically high at $700 a week for homes and $670 a week for units.
Fremantle Co real estate agency is one of the agencies whose photos for a legitimate listing on Little High Street a few years ago were used in a recent scam listing.
Fremantle Co licensee and sales director Damien Anthony said he was disappointed that his listings were being used, and he felt for those being duped by scammers.
“It’s such a tight market, so many people are so desperate,” he said.
“We get people coming in here all the time, and you can see it on their faces, and you do feel for them. It’s the last thing you need if you’re desperate, then someone comes along and decides to kick you in the guts when you’re down, it’s pretty tough.”
REIWA’s red flags for rental scams
- Most properties in WA are managed by property managers, they will not contact you through or advertise on platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree or WhatsApp. Be very wary of responding to ads on these platforms or people who contact you via these platforms;
- Be cautious of rental listings that have extremely low prices. Scammers often try to entice people with prices that are too good to be true. Do some research on www.reiwa.com to see what properties in that area are being advertised for;
- If the ‘landlord’ says they can’t show you the property because they are away, interstate or overseas, it is probably a scam. Suggesting you do a drive-by of the property is another common trick;
- Be wary of someone trying to push or rush you to make a decision and send funds to ‘make sure you don’t miss out of the property’.
David’s conversations with scammers on Messenger contain a warning from Facebook’s owner Meta that it may be a scam, but the app does not shut down the conversation or pull the listing.
David, who works in tech, said Meta should be employing know your customer rules like those that applied to banks, or blocking suspected scams like it blocks medical products being sold on Marketplace.
Kelly said tech companies had a role to play to stamp out these scams.
“I think everyone just needs to be doing a little bit more to try and protect everyone that’s being affected by this,” he said.
A Meta spokesman said scams were an ever-evolving issue driven by cross-border criminal networks that operated on a global scale.
“As scams have become more persistent and sophisticated, so have our efforts. We’ve rolled out anti-scam products including inline anti-scam warnings and Messenger filters and work with government, law enforcement, and industry groups to tackle this problem,” he said.
“We encourage anyone who sees content that might violate our policies to report it so we can investigate and take action.”
Ultimately, REIWA president Suzanne Brown said desperate house-hunters should trust their gut.
“If you feel something is misleading or seems too good to be true, don’t follow through with the property and cease all interaction with the ‘property manager’ or ‘landlord’,” she said.
*David’s name has been changed to not disadvantage him during his rental search.
Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X or email.