It is very important to study abroad and see the house on the spot. How to prevent rental fraud?

Be careful of the low market price. With the resumption of offline courses, many international students have returned to Australia to study. But here, some of them are in trouble-cheating on renting a house. On social media platforms, posts about "Australian rental scam" are common, and the scam routines are generally similar. Criminals first publish rental information on rental software. Real estate is generally located in the urban area, but the rent is far below the market price. The fashion trend of interior decoration is suitable for living, and international students are tempted to consult according to the "cheap and good quality" real estate.

In the future, the "landlord" will be very enthusiastic and reply to all the information in time, but he can't lead the students to the scene to see the house on the pretext that he is not a local. Generally, he will ask students to pay money first (or deposit in advance), and then mail the house keys.

Deception is not complicated. Criminals use the psychology of international students eager to find a house and the systematic loopholes of inexperience in renting a house to commit fraud. Nancy (pen name), an international student from China and a sophomore at Monash University, was almost arrested not long ago. Previously, she took an online course abroad for a whole year. After receiving an application from Monash University to return to Australia at the end of last year, she arrived in Melbourne in the middle and late February this year. Although she is a sophomore, this is her first time in Australia.

When she found out about renting a house on a local APP, she encountered a similar scam. "The landlord asked me to transfer the money first and then send me the key. The deposit is 1000 Australian dollars. At that time, I loved this house so much that I almost turned around. In the end, there is often no transfer, because there is not enough money in the card that day. "

After rational thinking, Nancy muttered something in her heart. "The other party said that you can't look at the house first, you can only look at photos. I feel that something is wrong, and it is also clear that I need to see the real estate license. The' landlord' will not reply in the future. " After replaying the whole process, she was glad that she didn't have enough money that day. "Otherwise, I will transfer money directly. The house looks really clean and warm, and the price is right. It is a good choice for international students. "

It is very important to see the house on the spot. Nancy finally caught the scam, but some international students were not so lucky. Some students posted comments on social platforms, telling stories about their own or classmates' rent fraud. The amount of fraud ranges from several hundred to several thousand Australian dollars. However, the vast majority of students choose to "admit planting" after being deceived. "It's too young to find a reward after learning the lesson." An overseas student from China left a message on the forum for studying abroad.

"The most deceived international students are probably renting houses." Tan Rui (pen name), who is studying at the University of Leeds in England, forced out a smile and said, "Some international students are not familiar with the world, and they may be deceived when they just start to understand the local situation."

How to find a real estate If you make an appointment to live with your partner before studying abroad, you can rent a house as a whole, which will make you more comfortable living with the people you know best. Generally, the whole rented house has to bear the daily expenses such as water and electricity network.

If you choose to rent a house as a whole, you can find an intermediary. This guarantee is a reliable rental contract, and the legitimate rights and interests are guaranteed. There are many large intermediary companies in Australia, including RayWhite and LJHooker. You can also search for suitable realestate on the website of Real Estate (as shown in the figure below).

1 person students who rent a house can go to the school website to search. The University of Queensland where I study has a special rental website uqrentals. I once rented a house on this platform. My three roommates are a Turkish girl, an Australian girl and a China girl (shy, having a language class, not confident about their English).

We usually encourage her, but it doesn't have much practical effect I didn't realize that I had an English environment until I moved away, but I didn't make rational use of it. So if your roommate is not from China, practice oral English and English listening with peace of mind. Remember what I said before, take the first step bravely.

In addition, you can directly search on flatmate.com and its facebook, which is more suitable for students who want to live with students from all over the world. After all, few people in China rent houses in these places, and most of the time they rent houses with non-China people.

If you want to live with China people, you can pay attention to some Sina Weibo ("Universal Milk Pudding" is highly recommended for Brisbane students) or micro signals. They will release rental information, second-hand goods, work to earn money, apply for a job, ask some questions and so on. As long as all campus advertisements are free, I will shoot them myself if necessary, and the effect is very good every time.