Rental / Bond Scam Checker
Check a rental listing, bond request, urgent deposit, room offer or landlord message before you send money or identity documents.
Built for Australians who need a calm first check before paying, clicking, installing software, sharing codes or sending personal details.
What happened? Choose the safest starting point.
Use this as a first-check triage system. Start with the situation, then move to the safest next step before paying for help.
Designed for the moment people feel rushed or unsure.
This tool now gives a clearer path for three real situations: checking before acting, helping someone else, or recovering after money/details were shared.
Do not pay bond/deposit or send identity documents before you have verified the listing and contact details.
Verify the property, agent, owner and payment path before sending bond, rent, deposit or identity documents.
If money or identity documents were sent, call your bank first for payments and secure identity/accounts if documents were shared.
Tick what applies.
The result gives a simple risk level, what to avoid, and the safest next action.
Why rental and bond scams work
Rental pressure makes people rush. Scammers use a good price, a believable story and fear of missing out to push renters into paying before checking.
A safe rental payment should be connected to a verified property, verified contact, proper paperwork and a payment path you can explain later.
- Do not send bond, deposit or ID documents while you feel rushed.
- Verify the property through a trusted property platform, agency website or official contact details.
- Search the address and images to see if the listing appears elsewhere with different contact details.
- If money was already sent, call your bank first and save every message, profile, listing URL and receipt.
- If identity documents were shared, secure accounts and consider IDCARE or official identity support pathways.
Use the right checker for what happened.
Want someone to check the device or accounts with you?
See the Scam Safety Help service for calm, hands-on device and account checks after a suspicious call, message, payment or remote-access incident.
Check before relying on this result
This free tool provides general guidance from the answers you choose. It may be incomplete or inaccurate and is not a confirmed diagnosis, safety clearance, professional assessment, fixed quote or guarantee of an outcome.
For safety, security, money, legal rights, health, data loss or destructive changes, verify the result with a current official source or an appropriate qualified person. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for loss caused by relying on free, unconfirmed tool output instead of obtaining that help. Nothing here removes rights that cannot be excluded under Australian law.
Read the Information disclaimer · How tool information is handled