If you're the one moving in: verify the place and the person
- Never send a deposit before you have seen the unit and the person, live, on video if you can't be there.
- Be suspicious of a price that is well below everything else nearby. It is bait.
- Confirm the person actually controls the apartment: a piece of mail, the lease, a video walkthrough where they are clearly inside.
- Refuse any request to pay by gift card, wire, or crypto. Those are chosen because they can't be reversed.
If you're the one leaving: verify your subletter
- Confirm they are a real student with a reason to be in town, on a video call.
- Watch for overpayment: anyone who "accidentally" sends more than the agreed amount and asks for the difference back is running a bad-check scam.
- Get a real name and a signature on a real agreement, so a missed payment is a documented breach and not just an awkward text.
The tells that show up in almost every scam
- Urgency: a hard deadline to pay "or I give it to someone else."
- A refusal to video-call or show the actual unit.
- Pressure to take the whole conversation off-platform immediately.
- A story that explains why they can't meet, can't call, and need money fast.
The single best defense is a documented deal
A scammer's whole model depends on nothing being written down and nothing being verifiable. A signed agreement with both parties named, a rent schedule you can point to, and timestamped photos of the unit remove exactly the ambiguity they rely on. You do not have to be an expert at spotting fraud if you simply refuse to do the deal the way fraud requires.