How to Find a Roommate in Athens Without Getting Scammed

Article written By Dr Sotiria Moschopoulou, Founder of RooMate - Photo by Despina Galani on Unsplash

Every week, women arrive in Athens looking for a room. They join Facebook groups, scroll through listings, message strangers on WhatsApp. Most get lucky. Some don't.

This is not an article about RooMate. It is about what every woman searching for a roommate in Athens — on any platform, through any channel-should know before she hands over a deposit or walks into a stranger's flat.

The Athens roommate market is largely unregulated

There is no standard vetting process for roommate listings in Athens. No requirement to verify identity. No way to confirm that the person posting a room is who they say they are or that the room even exists.

The women most at risk are those who arrive without a local network. No cousin to call. No colleague who knows someone. No one to check the listing or vouch for the landlady before money changes hands. When you are new to a city, you are navigating on trust alone. And not everyone deserves that trust.

The most common scams — and how to spot them

The deposit before viewing The room looks perfect. The price is right.The person seems warm. They ask for a deposit to hold the room before you visit. You send the money. The room does not exist.

This is the most common scam targeting women looking for rooms in Athens, and it works because the pressure feels real — good rooms go fast, and the fear of losing one is easy to exploit.

Rule: Never send money to anyone you have not met in person, in a property you have physically visited.

The bait and switch The listing photos show a bright, furnished room in a central neighbourhood. You arrive to find something very different — darker, smaller, in a different area, with conditions that were never mentioned.

Rule: Video call first. Ask the person to walk you through the space live, on camera, before you commit to a visit.

The identity mismatch The person you have been messaging is not the person who opens the door. Or the landlady in the listing is not the person who actually manages the property.

Rule:Ask for a full name and confirm it matches any documents or receipts before you arrive.

The too-good-to-be-true listing —and this one matters more than ever I want to be direct about this because it is important: rents in Athens have risen sharply. The city has changed. A central neighbourhood, a furnished flat, a terrace with a view-these things cost money now, and the market reflects that.

So when you see a listing in a great area, with a beautiful room or a rooftop view, at a price that seems almost impossible-it probably is! Scarcity and urgency ("three other people are interested, you need to decide today") are pressure tactics designed to make you act before you think.

If the price is significantly below what similar rooms in that area actually cost, do not get excited. Get suspicious. Ask more questions, not fewer. And if the answers come too easily, trust that feeling.

Rule: In Athens right now, if it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

Before you visit anyone

These are not overcautious suggestions. They are the minimum any woman should do when meeting a stranger in an unfamiliar city.

Do a video call first. See the room live, on camera. See the person. Notice how they respond to your questions. If they refuse a video call, that is your answer.

Tell someone where you are going. A trusted friend or family member should have the full address, the name of the person you are meeting, and a rough time you expect to be back. Share your live location if you can.

Do not send money before viewing in person. Not a deposit. Not a holding fee. Not a gesture of good faith. Nothing.

Trust your instincts. If something feels off — the conversation, the listing, the street when you arrive — you have every right to walk away. You do not owe anyone an explanation.

What verified matching looks like

When I built RooMate, I built the steps above into the platform itself. Before anyone can express interest in a listing, they confirm five things —not as a formality, but as a genuine moment of pause before connecting with a stranger.

Not because I can guarantee safety. No platform can. But because these habits reduce risk—and in housing, that matters—and I wanted them to be part of the experience from the very first interaction.

Whether you use RooMate or not—hold yourself to these standards. They cost nothing. And they matter.

If something goes wrong

Report it. In Greece, you can report online fraud to the Hellenic Police Cybercrime Division at cybercrime.gr. If you are an EU citizen, you can also report cross-border scams via the European Consumer Centre at eccgr.gr.

Keep every record —screenshots of messages, transfer receipts, listing URLs. They are your evidence.

Dr Sotiria Moschopoulou is a Greek dentist and Airbnb Superhost landlady based in London, and the founder of RooMate, a trust-based roommate matching platform for women in Athens, operating as a single-sex service under Schedule 3, Part 7 of the Equality Act 2010.

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Photo by Despina Galani on Unsplash