Staying safe

Someone posts an attractive room below the going rate. When you ask to visit, they say they are travelling or out of station, and offer to hold it if you send a small advance over UPI. Then they stop replying.

The listing looks real because the photos are real — they were taken from somewhere else. The only reliable defence is refusing to pay before you have stood in the room.

• Rent noticeably below other rooms in the same locality
• Any reason given for why you cannot visit before paying
• Pressure to decide immediately because others are interested
• A request to move the conversation off RoomBazar straight away
• An account created within the last few days

None of these prove anything on its own. Two or three together are worth walking away from.

• Go during daylight and tell someone where you are going
• Take someone with you if you can
• Meet at the property itself, not somewhere else first
• Ask to see proof of ownership or the existing rental agreement before you commit to anything

• Every account verifies a working phone number
• Listings are scanned for duplicate photos, prices far below the locality median, and advance-payment language
• New accounts and reported listings are reviewed by a person
• Listers can verify their government ID and prove ownership of the property, shown as badges on the listing

• We cannot confirm a room exists without visiting it. Ownership verification raises the cost of fraud; it does not remove it.
• We cannot guarantee your safety at a viewing. We can give you guidance and a way to report what happened.
• We are not part of any rental agreement, and we do not settle disputes between a landlord and a tenant after they transact.
• We cannot fully stop agents from describing themselves as owners. Detection and reporting make it costly and unreliable, not impossible.

Every listing, profile and conversation has a report option. Scam and harassment reports are reviewed within four hours, everything else within a day, and we tell you what happened either way.

If you have lost money or feel unsafe, report it to the police as well — we can act on the account, but we cannot act on the person.