Common Scammers techniques

Scammers are online criminals who pose as advertisers and whose aim is to extort money or sensitive identification information. Whether you have a room to let or are looking to rent a room, you can be targeted by these scammers. With time, scammers are getting more experience and creativeness and they infiltrate every classified website.  

If you are advertising a room

• Their English is sketchy.
• They are travelling overseas.
• Their parents are the one who are paying for the room.
• They will ask for the contract and even send their (stolen) personal ID.
• They will not ask many questions and simply say they want to pay in advance.
• They are sending you a cheque for more money than you are asking. Then ask you to return the difference, until you understand the cheque has bounced.
• They will “try” to make a transfer but will encounter many difficulties and will end up sending you a cheque.
• They can also use associated moving costs as another method and pretend having paid for some belongings to be shipped to your property - then invent some convoluted story about needing to make a final payment, but have unfortunately had their credit card stolen.

If you are looking for a room

• They ask to make a payment through cheque, western union, money gram or another website than Roomgo.
• They want to contact you directly through your email address or mobile phone.
• The photos are not showing personal objects inside the place.
• The photos look great, much better than anything else you have seen for that price.
• They refuse to make any personal video conference to show you the space they are offering.
• They have an excuse for not showing the apartment before receiving money.
• They say there is someone else interested pressuring you to send payment.
• The ad is either ridiculously detailed or too general (would describe any room in the country).
• The flat belongs to a sibling or friend who is abroad.
• They request you to send a deposit to secure the accommodation or book the room.
• They request for lots of documents - e.g. ID, passport, utility bills etc.
• They could ask you to send money to yourself, through Western Union, to prove that you have the funds. This sounds safe, but it's not! 
• The user pretends working for Roomgo and asks you a fee to secure the viewing. They can even use our logo and name. Roomgo New Zealand has only one mailbox: contact@roomgo.co.nz.

As a classified site, we do not own any of the properties advertised on the site, we do not vet, reference or interview any user either. We do not ask or hold money from our users to book rooms and we do not have any real estate agents working for us. It is up to the users to contact and agree on all the terms of the contract.