Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
The National Student Union of the Netherlands (LSVb) has seen a huge increase in the number of people being targeted by scammers while looking for student housing, according to a new report.
The LSVb publishes an annual report on the number of calls and messages they receive to their Housing Hotline, an information and advice point for students who are looking for somewhere to live. This year, the union has noticed a significant increase in the number of reports regarding housing scams.
In 2024, 9,3 percent of all reports received by the LSVb housing hotline concerned fraud and scams, NL Times reports, a huge increase compared to the 1,4 percent recorded in 2022.
The reports concerned both unsuccessful scams, where the person involved realised in time that something was not quite right, and successful scams, where students unfortunately paid thousands of euros as rental deposits on homes that turned out not to exist, or were asked to pay money just to view a room.
LSVb said that the number of fake advertisements for rooms seemed to have increased “enormously” over the past year, and foreign students are unfortunately the prime targets. “I have spent the last two months trying hard to find a house and have only had two viewings and countless scammers trying to get me to pay before I have done the viewing. I am really struggling to find a house,” one anonymous student told the Housing Hotline.
By far the majority of the people contacting the Housing Hotline were seeking advice about finding somewhere to live. Other recurrent themes were people asking questions about rental contracts, tenancy rights and service charges. There were other reports of landlords charging excessive rents, rental agencies charging high fees, and unusually large deposit amounts.
“We have been shocked by the stories we have received from students recently, it almost seems like organised crime. We hope that politicians will be just as shocked by this and come up with solutions,” chairperson Abdelkader Karbache said in a press release.
Karbache added that it was unfortunate that most scam victims who reported the crimes received little help from the police. “They have no chance and are not helped,” he said. The LSVb has called on Dutch universities to provide more support to incoming students, including providing more advice on rentals and warnings about scams.