PSP Logs 4,553 Rental-Listing Frauds in Three Years — Burlas Fall Slightly in 2025 But Foreign-Tenant Targeting and IBAN-Mismatch Scams Keep Climbing
PSP data shows 4,553 fraud cases tied to fake rental ads between 2023 and 2025, with another 325 in Q1 2026. Foreign tenants paying advance deposits without an IBAN check are the typical victim — and the GNR adds 725 cases for 2025 alone.
Portugal's PSP urban-policing service registered 4,553 fraud cases linked to fake rental advertisements between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025, with another 325 already filed in the first quarter of 2026, the force confirmed in a release covered by Diário de Notícias and Público on the morning of 22 April. The headline number is roughly a 10% reduction year-on-year — Q1 2026's 325 cases compares with 361 in Q1 2025 — but the volume sits at a structural plateau that has hardly shifted in three years.
The numbers, year by year
The PSP's three-year breakdown is striking for its consistency rather than its trend:
- 2023: 1,542 cases
- 2024: 1,511 cases
- 2025: 1,500 cases
- Q1 2026: 325 cases
Behind the PSP figures sit another 725 cases recorded by the GNR in 2025 across rural and peri-urban areas, with three formal arrests of suspects between 2024 and 2025 — a conviction rate that even the GNR concedes is far below the offence rate.
The modus operandi
The pattern, the PSP says, is depressingly uniform. Criminals copy real photographs and addresses from genuine listings on platforms such as Idealista, Imovirtual or Casa Sapo, repost them at conspicuously below-market rents, then field enquiries by email or WhatsApp from prospective tenants. Negotiations move quickly to a request for a transfer covering the first month's rent, a deposit, and sometimes a caução — typically routed to an IBAN that does not match the name of the supposed landlord. Once the money clears, the listing disappears and the would-be tenant never gains access to the flat.
The targeting is not random. Foreign students, seasonal workers and newly-arrived expats — the cohort least familiar with Portuguese platform conventions and most likely to commit to a property sight-unseen — are over-represented in PSP victim files. Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra account for the bulk of complaints, with the Algarve climbing in summer months when seasonal-worker turnover spikes.
What the PSP is now telling renters to do
The PSP recommendations issued on 22 April are concrete and worth reproducing in full:
- Use only verified classified platforms that authenticate listings.
- Treat unusually low prices as a red flag, not a deal.
- Demand additional documentation: interior photos, recent utility bills, an energy certificate (CE).
- Verify that the IBAN holder's name matches the advertised landlord's name — request a comprovativo in writing.
- Avoid transfers to unverified parties; insist on a signed contrato de arrendamento before any deposit changes hands.
- Save all communication records — they are the basis of any subsequent queixa at a police station or via the Queixa Electrónica portal.
Why the numbers matter — and why they are probably understated
The PSP and GNR figures only capture filed complaints. Victims who lose €500 to €1,500 — the typical scam range — frequently calculate that the legal recovery cost outweighs the loss and never report. Victim-support groups have long argued that the true volume of rental-listing frauds is at least double the official figure, and likely closer to triple in the major cities.
The structural backdrop is, of course, the housing market itself. With nominal rents up 5.1% nationally in Q1 2026 and below-market listings increasingly rare, the asymmetry between desperate would-be tenants and a small pool of legitimate offers is exactly the environment in which scam listings flourish. Until the supply side of the market loosens, the PSP's annual count of burlas no arrendamento is unlikely to fall meaningfully — even if Q1 2026's modest 10% dip looks, on the surface, like progress.
