A message from our CEO

Hello all,

Today we have some news that we hoped we’d never have to share. Over the last two months, our team has been made aware of a scammer pretending to be a consultant for Flatio on Idealista - a classified property listing website.

So far, there have been 30 reported cases of the Idealista scam, mainly in Portugal. From what we've been told, the fraudster has been tricking Idealista users into sending money for properties that don’t exist.

However, what’s concerning to us is that they have been doing so using the Flatio logo and a fake invoice. Thankfully some of the victims alerted us to the scam, and a criminal investigation is underway.

Although this is entirely out of Flatio's control, we take this kind of thing extremely seriously. That's why we wanted to make our users and potential users aware of the situation.

Examples of the scammers' correspondence

See the correspondence between the victim and scammer below so you know what to look out for.

How the scam works

1) The scammer lists a fake property on Idealista

2) When the victim replies to the ad, the scammer removes the ad and continues conversing on email pretending to be a consultant working for Flatio

3) The scammer then sends a fake lease agreement and invoices to the victim for a deposit

4) The scammer then says the payment has been declined (but keeps the money) and asks for the victim to send the money again

5) The money is never returned, and the scammer moves onto their next victim

As you know, we take safety very seriously at Flatio. That’s why we never:

1)Ask for payment of any kind before a lease agreement has been signed

2) Transfer any of your money to a landlord until we know you’ve seen and are happy with your property

3) Send invoices to Flatio customers

4) Accept payments outside of the Flatio platform

5) Work with third parties who will request money from our users and potential users

Payments on Flatio

All payments are made through Flatio's platform. We will only take your payment after you, and your landlord has signed a legally binding lease agreement. You won’t pay anything to your landlord until you have visited the property and told us they’re happy with it. If you're not satisfied, we'll find you somewhere else to stay.

Safety on Flatio

All landlords on Flatio are extensively vetted to protect our users from things like the Idealista scam. If any ad seems suspicious, it will be removed from the site immediately (although this has never happened due to our thorough vetting service). We know this scam has nothing to do with us, and we don’t have any legal obligation to tell you about it, but at Flatio, we believe in transparency and trust. Without it, our platform wouldn’t be where it is today. We also want to make the industry better and safer.

What we've done (and are doing) about the Idealista scam

We immediately stopped our marketing partnership with Idealista
We asked Idealista to add a warning to its website highlighting the scam to its users (which they are yet to do)
We told Idealista to look into its landlord vetting process to stop this from ever happening again
We have reported the Idealista scam to police in both Portugal (where it happened) and Czech Republic (where we’re based) and are supporting them with investigations
We are helping the victims of the Idealista scam and assisting with any questions they may have
We will continue to follow up with Idealista to update their vetting process (we’re happy to share ours), as we believe they are responsible for protecting their users.

If you suspect you've been a victim of the Idealista scam, please send an email to [email protected], and we'll get back to you straight away. Other additional steps we recommend you to take:

Keep all your emails and proof of other communication;
Print it and take it as evidence;
Go to the Police in Portugal (Polícia de Segurança Pública - PSP);
Ask to make a formal complaint against an unknown;

If you have transferred the scammers any money:

Discuss the matter with your bank to see if it's possible to have your payments returned

Make sure to report it through the Idealista website too, here's the link to contact them.

Stay vigilant and take care,

Radim Rezek,

Co-founder and CEO of Flatio