Our latest research finds that 56% of rental listings on Facebook Marketplace were properties found to be lifted from other sites, including Booking.com and Rightmove, with variations in price, location or credibility that make it likely they are not legitimate.
Comparing 300 rental property adverts around the UK, the research reveals the dangers of searching for privately rented homes on Facebook Marketplace. Almost three quarters (74%) of listings contained at least one indicator that the advert was suspicious or a scam, according to Meta’s own guidance.
These were randomised searches between 10th October 2023 and 22nd April 2024 across a large geographic spread of cities around the UK.
The four indicators of a suspicious listing analysed in Generation Rent’s research were:
- If the seller’s profile is new, created within a year of the advert being published
- If the seller’s profile picture is found to be of someone else
- If the rental price of the listing is significantly below the average rent for the area
- If the photos of the private rental have been lifted from other sites, including Booking.com, Rightmove and Zoopla.
Analysis of six major cities across the UK has revealed the high proportion of scammers using false property listings to target private renters.
Shockingly, the study reveals that the proportion of Facebook Marketplace listings found to be taken from other websites are:
- 66% in Birmingham
- 62% in London
- 60% in Cardiff
- 58% in Belfast
- 48% in Manchester
- 44% in Edinburgh
Further, when compared to the average (mean) rental prices in their respective areas, the proportion of listings advertising properties for less than two thirds of these prices were:
- 86% in London
- 54% in Edinburgh
- 40% in Birmingham
- 12% in Manchester
- 4% in Cardiff
- 2% in Belfast
Of the advertisers on Facebook Marketplace, 36% had very new profiles and 12% were found to be using photos from other profiles and websites – including stock images and photos of online influencers – as their profile pictures.
The impact on people
Scams have a very real and devestating impact on the people exploited. People like Saduni, who spoke to us about her experience in being the victim of an online scam.
She said: “We said we wanted the flat after the viewing and we made the necessary arrangements. He sent us the tenancy agreement and we read it through and signed it the next day… SpareRoom contacted us because they saw that we were in touch with the girl who we had originally posted the ad. They informed us that [the scammer] had been pretending to be her and the landlord all along. The scammer had been using an Airbnb to lure desperate tenants into giving them deposits and running off with the money. We were completely dumbfounded.”
Read more about Saduni’s story here.
What needs to happen?
This is a scary time to be a renter. We’re in a cost of renting crisis, and scammers are using this as an opportunity to prey on desperate people in search for a home. For people who are struggling to find homes to rent through conventional letting agents, there may be a temptation to turn towards sites like Facebook Marketplace in the hopes of finding somewhere affordable. It is people in need of a good deal who are made most vulnerable to exploitation by scammers.
It is vital that the government takes the initiative in building more affordable and social homes across the country, to protect renters from poverty and desperation. Online websites are also responsible for making sure that their content is moderated and that their users are kept safe from scammers.
If you have been affected by fraud or scams, you can seek support at Action Fraud.
Read more about how to tell if an advert is a scam here.
Access the full results here.
Please note: scammers seek to exploit desperate people on many different types of website. All websites should work to prevent illegal activity. Generation Rent chose to focus its research on Facebook Marketplace in particular as a follow-up on news coverage and anecdotal evidence that suggested that scams affecting renters were widespread on Facebook Marketplace.
