Safety and policies
Recognising and avoiding common scam patterns
Most hosting on Flatmates is entirely straightforward, but a small number of recurring scam patterns target hosts specifically, and knowing what they look like in advance is the most effective protection against ever actually falling for one.
Be wary of any request to move payment off-platform
The single most common scam pattern involves a guest proposing to pay directly, outside the platform, often with a plausible-sounding reason attached - this should always be treated as a serious red flag, since it deliberately removes the protections that make on-platform payment safe.
Watch for overpayment followed by a refund request
A classic scam involves a guest sending an amount larger than required, then asking for the difference back via a separate transfer - by the time the original payment is found to be fraudulent or reversed, the refunded amount is already genuinely gone.
Be suspicious of urgency and pressure to skip normal process
A guest or prospective tenant who pushes hard for an unusually fast decision, skipping normal verification or your usual process, is using a common manipulation tactic - genuine urgency is rare, and artificial urgency is a classic scam pressure technique.
Verify any unusual communication claiming to be from the platform itself
A message or email claiming to be from Flatmates asking for login details, payment information, or account access outside the normal app or website should be treated with real suspicion - verify independently through the official app rather than clicking any embedded link.
Be cautious of a guest who avoids ever using a phone call
A prospective guest or tenant who insists on text-only communication and avoids any voice or video contact, particularly for a longer-term arrangement, is exhibiting a pattern common among scam attempts, since it's harder to maintain a fabricated story over a live conversation.
Check listing-adjacent scams targeting hosts trying to get more bookings
Be wary of unsolicited offers promising to boost your listing's visibility or bookings in exchange for payment or personal information, since legitimate ways to improve visibility come through the platform's own features, not third-party offers appearing out of nowhere.
Recognise the fake damage or fake dispute pattern
Occasionally, a bad-faith guest fabricates or exaggerates a damage claim to extract a refund or compensation - thorough documentation of your property's condition before every stay is your strongest protection against this specific kind of scam attempt.
Be careful with requests involving unusual payment methods
A request to pay or be paid through gift cards, cryptocurrency, or an unusual, hard-to-trace payment method is a strong scam signal in almost any context, and legitimate hosting transactions have no genuine reason to ever require this kind of unusual arrangement.
Trust the platform's official channels over anything unsolicited
If you receive any unexpected communication claiming special authority or urgency, verify it directly through the official app or website rather than trusting an unsolicited message, call, or email at face value, however official it might initially appear.
Report suspicious activity even if you didn't fall for it
If you encounter a suspicious message or pattern, report it to the platform even if you didn't personally fall for it, since this helps protect other hosts who might otherwise encounter the exact same attempt without your prior awareness.
Scammers rely on hosts being too polite to question something odd
A significant part of how these patterns succeed is hosts feeling awkward about questioning a guest directly - it's always reasonable to ask a clarifying question or decline a request that feels off, regardless of how the other person might react to being questioned.
Staying informed is your best ongoing protection
Scam patterns evolve over time, so staying generally aware of what current patterns look like, through host communities and platform communications, keeps your instincts sharp and your protection genuinely current rather than based on outdated warning signs alone.
Share genuine scam attempts with other hosts in your own network
If you encounter a specific, clear scam attempt, sharing the pattern with other hosts you know, through a community group or informal network, helps others recognise the exact same attempt quickly rather than each host needing to learn the same lesson independently and the hard way.
Slow down deliberately whenever something feels unusually convenient
A scam often works precisely by presenting an unusually easy, convenient-seeming opportunity, so treat any offer or request that feels a little too smooth or too good relative to your normal experience as a specific cue to slow down and examine it more carefully before proceeding.
Remember that legitimate guests never mind reasonable verification steps
A genuine, honest guest generally has no issue with reasonable identity confirmation or a clarifying question, since they have nothing to hide - a guest who reacts with unusual defensiveness or irritation to an entirely normal, low-key verification step is itself a small but worthwhile signal.
New hosts are sometimes specifically targeted, so extra care early on is wise
Scammers occasionally target newer, less experienced hosts specifically, assuming less familiarity with common patterns, which makes it worth being especially alert during your first few months of hosting, before you've built up the pattern recognition that comes naturally with more experience.
A calm, factual response defuses a scam attempt more effectively than panic
If you suspect you're dealing with an attempted scam, respond calmly and factually, declining the specific request clearly, rather than reacting with visible alarm, since a composed response gives a scammer nothing useful to work with and often ends the attempt quickly.
Keep evidence of any attempted scam even if it didn't succeed
Screenshots or saved messages from a suspicious interaction are useful both for your own records and for a report to the platform, giving concrete, specific evidence rather than a vague secondhand description if the same pattern is later investigated more broadly.
A healthy baseline of scepticism protects you without making you a worse host
Staying appropriately alert to scam patterns doesn't require becoming generally distrustful or cold toward guests - the two are entirely compatible, and the great majority of your interactions will remain exactly as warm and straightforward as hosting is meant to be.
Revisit this list occasionally, since scam tactics do shift over time
The specific patterns described here reflect common tactics at the time of writing, but as with any form of fraud, the details evolve, so periodically refreshing your awareness through host communities and platform updates keeps your defences genuinely current rather than static.
The confidence to spot and decline a scam grows with hosting experience
Recognising these patterns quickly becomes considerably easier with time and exposure, and even a single successfully identified attempt tends to sharpen your instincts noticeably for anything similar you might encounter in the future, making each subsequent decision faster and more confident.
In the end, awareness is what makes this manageable
None of these patterns require special expertise to avoid, just genuine awareness that they exist and a willingness to pause before agreeing to anything that departs from the platform's normal, protected process built to keep every booking safe.
