The summer months traditionally see a sharp increase in online rental scams. According to Sophie van der Zee, Assistant Professor at Erasmus School of Economics and an expert in online deception and fraud, criminals are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to make fraudulent rental advertisements more convincing.
Where scam advertisements were once often identifiable by poor grammar or awkward wording, this is becoming far less common. ‘People can now generate flawless texts in virtually any language that are specifically designed to persuade potential victims,’ says Van der Zee. As a result, distinguishing fake rental listings from genuine ones is becoming increasingly difficult.
Van der Zee advises prospective tenants to remain realistic when assessing attractive offers. ‘If you've been looking at small or poorly maintained apartments for €800 and suddenly come across a spacious, beautiful flat for the same price, think twice.’ Offers that appear too good to be true should always be carefully verified before any payment is made.
She also calls for a stronger response to online fraud. Van der Zee encourages victims to report incidents to the police and believes that law enforcement and the justice system should treat digital fraud with the same seriousness as offline crime. ‘Too often, people who fall victim to online fraud are still made to feel that it was somehow their own fault,’ she says.
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Read the full article on NOS.nl (in Dutch).
For more information, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, mobile: +31 6 53 641 846.
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