WARNING: Expats who rent an apartment in Zurich are an easy target for scammers!

Do not fall for scammers who pretend to have an apartment to rent in Zurich! Expats who don’t know the real estate market, its prices and how the process of renting an apartment in Zurich works, are an easy target for scammers who want to rip people off! Learn how to recognise scammers who pretend to be renting out an apartment in Zurich but in reality only try to make you pay them and then disappear. 

If an apartment or room offer in Zurich sounds very attractive – be very sceptical!

Scammers need big numbers of flat searchers in Zurich who contact them so usually they post extremely attractive apartments or rooms in shared flats. Renting a luxury 2-room apartment in central Zurich will never cost below 1000 Swiss Francs per months, probably not even below 2000. Expats who are new to Zurich sometimes do not know the real estate market and the prices of rental apartments so do your research and don’t fall for apartment offers which are too good to be true!

If an apartment to rent cannot be shown to you personally it’s very likely to be a scam!

Often the scammer pretends to be an expat in Zurich himself and claims to be abroad at the moment. Even if the story why the landlord cannot show you the room or the apartment to rent in Zurich sounds very credible and is build up over several emails: Do not believe it! Apartment scammers are highly skilled at making people believe them, they always come up with new stories!

Never ever make a payment via Western Union, PayPal or similar methods of payment which cannot be tracked!!!

No Swiss tenant will require a payment over Western Union! This would be highly unusual. Also a serious tenant requires you to pay your rental deposit to a blocked bank account. Scammers often claim that they will send you the keys for the rental apartment after they get a security payment. This is highly unusual. In most of the cases the keys for the apartment in Zurich are handed over personally.

I usually recognise rental apartment ads from scammers on flatforexpats.com immediately and delete them. As the scammers are very clever and always come up with new methods they sometimes slip through. If you see suspicious emails, please contact me immediately !