Safety Advice

When you're looking for a room or roommate it's important to stay safe. There are a few simple guidelines you can follow to make things easier - here's what we do to keep you safe while you're on the site and what you can do to keep yourself safe when finding a roommate.

What we do

RoomMateFinders.com is a classified listings website rather than a broker or agency so we don't see the apartments or meet any of the landlords in person. However, we take your safety extremely seriously and there are several measures we implement to make sure you only see genuine, quality listings while you're on the site.

We use both automated and manual systems to check listings to make sure the scams and fraudulent listings that are so prevalent on many classifieds sites aren't a problem.

Only registered users are able to contact you through RoomMateFinders, making them subject to our safety precautions. We never give out your email address - all messaging is done through our message system. This means you keep your email private plus it can't be harvested by robots and added to spam mailing lists.

What you can do to keep yourself (and your money) safe

Use your common sense, if something seems too good to be true it usually is. You should exercise particular caution if:

• An advert seems very cheap for the area and the standard shown on the photos.
• The advertiser claims they cannot show you the room and pressurises you into signing and paying before you have seen anything.
• You are asked to pay anything via Western Union or any other money transfer system.

Most people are honest but, by exercising a bit of caution, you'll stand a much better chance of staying safe. If you're going to see a room find out the exact address you're going to and let a friend know where and when you're going. Tell them that you will call when you've finished and, if you have not called, ask that they give you 5 minutes and then call you.

Finally - NEVER pay by Western Union. If necessary pay by a reputable Escrow service.