Rental Scam Risk Checker

How to Spot Rental Scams in Poland Before You Lose Money

Rental scams in Poland target expats and international students who are unfamiliar with local market prices and practices. Common schemes include fake listings on OLX and Facebook with stolen photos, non-existent landlords who demand deposits via wire transfer before viewings, and bait-and-switch tactics where a different apartment is shown than advertised. This tool analyzes the specific red flags in any rental listing to give you an instant scam risk score before you invest time or money.

The most reliable scam indicator is price: if a listing in Warsaw's Srodmiescie offers a furnished studio for 1,500 PLN when market rates are 2,800-3,500 PLN, it is almost certainly a scam. Other major red flags include demands for payment before viewing (no legitimate landlord does this), refusal to meet in person, communication only via WhatsApp or email with poor Polish or English, stock photos instead of real apartment pictures, and payment requests via Western Union, MoneyGram, or cryptocurrency.

Poland's land registry system provides a free way to verify any property. Every legitimate apartment has a ksiega wieczysta (land and mortgage register) number that you can look up at ekw.ms.gov.pl. If the listed owner does not match the person you are dealing with, or if the landlord refuses to provide this number, walk away. The 5 minutes it takes to verify ownership can save you months of stress and thousands of PLN.

• Do a reverse image search on listing photos using Google Images or TinEye — scammers frequently steal photos from real estate agency websites or other platforms.
• Never send money (deposit or rent) before viewing the apartment in person and verifying the landlord's identity with a government-issued ID.
• If the price seems too good to be true for the neighborhood, it probably is — check average rents on Otodom for comparison.
• Insist on a written lease agreement (umowa najmu) and a proper receipt (pokwitowanie) for every payment, including the deposit.
• Report suspected scams to the local police (policja) and to the platform where you found the listing — this protects other renters too.