New investigation exposes Facebook scam targeting expat apartment hunters

A sophisticated scam network is targeting foreigners searching for housing in Prague and it nearly fooled multiple people despite looking completely legitimate.

Apolena Rychlíková, editor-in-chief of the Prague-based outlet Page Not Found, published an investigation today (read it in English here) exposing a coordinated group of Lithuanian scammers advertising nonexistent apartments.

The photos of that charming, impossibly cheap flat in Žižkov? Likely stolen from real apartment listings in Vilnius and Kaunas, Rychlíková reports.

Posing as a Californian woman moving to Prague, the reporter expressed interest in one of the listed apartments posted to the plethora of Facebook groups devoted to rental housing in the Czech capital.

What happened next was the discovery of a ring of social profiles that advertise affordable, non-existent apartments to unsuspecting foreigners through various Facebook accounts.

The operation is polished. Victims find photos of what appear to be affordable listings in coveted neighborhoods on expat Facebook groups, are directed to a professional-looking website (flatrentprague.com), and receive genuine-seeming contracts referencing a real, registered Czech company. They pay what they believe is a standard reservation deposit.

Rychlíková's investigation traced the money to MANNCO.STORE, an online gaming skin marketplace, processed through Stripe. By the time victims arrive at the address, nobody shows up.

The reporter spoke with Prague apartment seekers from both Europe and the U.S., highlighting how wide-reaching the scam is. Some had money stolen, others managed to extract themselves from a sticky situation unscathed, while still others, including an Italian academic, received disturbing threats for calling attention to the scam on social media.

While Rychlíková's investigation managed to uncover how the whole fraudulent system works by "verifying the links between the accounts, the website, and the companies behind it" the site remained live at press time. “The fact that it's still live shows the limits of reporting," she told us.

Her investigation did not involve Meta, but police confirmed they are investigating these fraudulent rental offers. Still, Rychlíková says the case presents a coordination gap. 

"When the victims are in the Czech Republic, the domain is linked to Lithuania, the contact address is in the Netherlands, and payments go through Stripe, it becomes easy for each actor to assume someone else should act."

Rychlíková uncovered the network using tools that are completely free and available to anyone: reverse image searches traced photos back to Lithuanian property sites, domain registration checks revealed the "Czech" website was registered in Lithuania, and direct calls to the named company director confirmed his identity had been used without his knowledge.

The investigation reflects the uncomfortable reality of apartment hunting in Prague today. In one of Europe’s least affordable housing capitals, a tenant must think like an investigative journalist just to avoid being robbed.

"Be cautious if someone quickly pushes for a deposit," Rychlíková says. A professional website in not proof that it is real."

To see the full report, complete with screen grabs from social accounts and details that anyone currently searching for Prague housing should see, visit Page Not Found.