Hey everyone,
Please be careful, as there is a man on 58.com advertising a really great apartment and this is a SCAM!

He tried to scam my friend, here is what happened:

He (the apparent owner of the apartment) said he was out of Kunming and had to travel some distance to meet my friend to complete the rental agreement with my friend. He said he needed a deposit on the apartment before he would come the distance. My friend had been looking for an apartment for awhile and needs one really quickly, so he was tempted and didnt want to miss out of this great apartment. But things sounded too good to be true and I advised him not to give the guy any money! When my friend declined to do so, immediately the man removed my friend off of wechat. After returning to 58.com, we saw that the ad had been removed right away.

Now...Im sure most of you would not give him money, but for newcomers to China who are desperate for a place to call home, this great looking, affordable apartment "400 metres from the metro" could be enough to lure you in. Do not give this man any money!

I have a photo...but not sure how to post it here. If anyone can advise on that, ill be happy to share.

There is a sense of Justice

Thanks for the heads up happygirl. What is the photo of and who took it?

The photo is of the "apartment" he has. I wanted to share that with the post but just dont think I can upload it in the forum section.

He could have many different photos of apartments but you could post the picture online somewhere and then send a link here

This is a common scam in many countries. My friend fell for it in the UK. NEVER pay any money up front for anything on the internet.

In Beijing (a long time ago), foreigners are also required to register their residence within 24 hours. This means foreigners needed to go to the local police security bureau (PSB) and register the property with the property OWNER. That means the owner also had to bring his/her original property deeds, Chinese ID card, etc.

This helps avoid the fraudulent agent/fraudulent owner scam.

As foreigners, you can avoid these scams by offering to pay at the PSB where the owner needs to provide property deeds to prove they own the property.

If you own your own residence - you'll need to provide original property deeds and related information to the PSB whenever your residency situation changes, is renewed, or is updated.

@vicar, yes he may very well have several ads like that going at once. That's the only one I know about so I saved the photo just incase.

In any event some of the comments following my original one may help some new comers. :) thanks everyone!

Scottish Guy is right, similar scams on craigslist in USA for every city. see some amazing photos of place for rent but landlord needs cash upfront fast.

I suppose it's better than paying and getting settled into a new place then a few weeks later the real owners turn up asking what you are doing there