How not to get scammed subletting in Berlin

Written for people arriving with a deadline.

Berlin’s sublet market runs on trust between strangers, at speed, in a language many of the people using it do not fully speak. That makes it a good market for fraud, and a small, stable set of scams turns up again and again. None of them are clever. All of them work, because they target someone who arrives on Tuesday, has a hostel booked until Sunday, and has just been told the room is gone unless they act now.

If you read nothing else: no money before a viewing, with no exceptions. Every scam below is an argument for why this one time is an exception.

1. Vorkasse: the deposit before the viewing

The most common Berlin sublet scam, and the basis of most of the others. The flat is beautiful, the price is a little under market, and the poster cannot show it to you: they are in London, or Lisbon, or their mother is ill in Munich. They will courier the keys. They just need the deposit, or the first month, or “a booking fee to take it off the market” first.

There is no version of this that is real. A Berlin flat that exists can be viewed, and if the person letting it is away then a flatmate, a friend or a neighbour can open the door. “Nobody can show it” means it is not theirs.

The variants to recognise: an escrow service they name and you have never heard of; a Western Union or Wise transfer “because SEPA takes too long”; a request for the deposit in crypto; a “refundable” payment to prove you are serious. Paying to view is the same scam. Viewings in Berlin are free.

2. The absent expat landlord

A specific, well-worn script. The profile has a Western European or American name, the German is stilted or absent, and the story is that they have moved abroad for work and want a “responsible” tenant rather than the highest bidder. There is often a long, warm, slightly odd message about how they want the flat looked after, sometimes with family photographs. The rent is noticeably cheap for what is shown.

The warmth is the mechanism. It reframes an obviously bad deal (pay a stranger abroad, sight unseen) as a relationship of mutual trust that it would be rude to check. Check anyway.

The photographs are usually stolen. Run a reverse image search on two or three of them. A set that appears on a Spanish estate agent’s site or in an old Airbnb listing settles it in under a minute. Ask for a photo taken today with something specific in it (today’s date on a piece of paper, a particular room from a particular corner). A scammer working from a stolen album cannot produce it.

3. Schufa and document demands that make no sense

For a permanent lease a landlord will reasonably ask for a Schufa report, three payslips and a copy of your ID. For a three-month furnished sublet from a private person, that package is unnecessary, and when it is demanded before a viewing, it is identity harvesting.

Two separate harms. The obvious one: a full identity pack (passport scan, Anmeldung, Schufa, payslips) is worth real money and is exactly what is needed to open accounts in your name. The subtler one: being asked for documents feels like a proper process, which makes the request that follows, a deposit, feel like the last step of something legitimate.

A sensible order is: see the flat, meet the person, agree terms, then exchange documents along with a signed contract. If someone wants your passport before they will tell you the address, stop. When you do send a copy of an ID, watermark it across the image (“for [name], sublet application, [date], no other use”).

Also, some scammers direct you to a specific paid Schufa-style site to “get your certificate”. That link is the scam: an affiliate kickback, or a card-harvesting page. Schufa data comes from Schufa.

4. The double-let and the flat that is not theirs

You view the flat, it is real, the person shows you around, you pay a deposit, and so did four other people that week. Or the flat is real, the person is a tenant, and their own contract forbids subletting, so the real landlord turns up in week three and you are out with no rights and no deposit.

The second one is common and mostly not malicious. Subletting in Germany needs the landlord’s permission (Untervermietungserlaubnis). Plenty of decent people sublet without it. It is still your problem when it goes wrong.

So ask, directly and early: are you on the contract, and do you have the landlord’s permission to sublet? A normal person answers that in one line. Then ask the more important question below.

5. The Anmeldung test

The most useful question in Berlin, and it doubles as a fraud check. Ask: will I get a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung? That is the landlord’s confirmation of residence. Without it you cannot register your address, which in turn blocks your tax ID, most bank accounts, and a lot of official processes.

Someone letting a flat they control knows what the form is and will say yes, no, or “no, sorry, this one is not anmeldbar”, which is a legitimate and common answer for a short sublet. Someone running a scam from abroad often does not know the word. Confusion here, or an eager “yes of course, no problem” from a person who cannot then explain it, is a strong warning sign.

Decide before you start whether you need to register. If you do, put it in writing before any money moves: “confirming you will provide the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung” in a message you keep.

6. Smaller tells, in one list

• Priced under the market. Compare against the current medians before you get excited. A room in Friedrichshain at €350 is not a lucky find.
• Time pressure. “Three other people are interested, I need the deposit tonight.” Real posters are in a hurry too, but they are in a hurry to show you the flat.
• Moving off the platform immediately to WhatsApp or email, before any details are discussed.
• The same photos, twice. If the identical flat is posted by two accounts, at least one is a scammer.
• A new Telegram account with no photo, or a handle that is a name plus four digits.
• No address until you commit. They do not need to give you the flat number to tell you the street.
• A deposit above three months’ rent. That is the legal cap for a Kaution in Germany, and for a short sublet anything near it is too much.
• A contract that falls apart when you read it. Ask for it in advance. No contract at all for a stay of several months is also a warning sign.

Do this instead

1. View it. In person, or on a live video call where you direct the camera (“go to the window, show me the street”). A recorded walkthrough is not a viewing.
2. Meet the person you will be paying. Ask if they are on the lease.
3. Ask the Anmeldung question, whatever your answer to it is.
4. Get it in writing: address, dates, rent, what is included, deposit amount, and how the deposit is returned.
5. Pay by SEPA transfer, from your own account to a named account, with a reference. Never cash, never crypto, never a money-transfer service. A bank record is the only leverage you will have.
6. Photograph the flat on the day you move in.

If it has already happened

Report it to the police (Anzeige at any Berlin station or online via the Internetwache). You will need the report for everything else. Tell your bank immediately, because a SEPA transfer can sometimes be recalled if you are fast. Report the account to Telegram or whichever platform it came from. Keep every message.

If you are in Berlin and have lost money, the Mieterverein and the Verbraucherzentrale Berlin both give advice, and student unions often have a housing officer. Feeling embarrassed is normal, and it is what keeps these scams working. Report it anyway.

Where we fit

We read the Berlin sublet groups and give you the poster’s Telegram handle so you are talking to a person, in your own words, from the first message. There is no form in the middle, no lead being resold, and nothing we take a cut of. That also means we do not vet posters and are not party to what you agree. You still need to run the checks above yourself.

What we can do is remove the scarcity panic these scams depend on. Seeing everything from every group, ranked, means the flat in front of you is one of many rather than the last one in Berlin, and a person who is not desperate does not wire a deposit to a stranger in Lisbon. An account is free.

This is general information from people who read a lot of these posts, not legal advice. For anything contractual, talk to the Mieterverein or a lawyer.