Padolens reads the text of a room listing for patterns that often appear in rental fraud, and reports them as risk signals. It cannot tell you that a listing is genuine, and it cannot tell you that a person is a fraudster.
What it is not
- Not a guarantee. A well-written scam can read as clean, and an honest landlord can be flagged.
- Not advice. Nothing here is legal, financial, tax or immigration advice.
- Not an ownership, identity or credit check. We do not look up who owns a property or who a person is.
- Not an agent or an intermediary. We do not list rooms, introduce you to landlords, take commissions, or hold or move any money.
- Not official. It is an unofficial, student-run project. It is not affiliated with the University of Padova or any of its services.
What to do whatever the result says
- See the place, in person or on a live video call, before you pay anything.
- Get the written contract first, and ask whether it will be registered.
- Pay only by traceable bank transfer. Never use cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency or money-transfer services.
- If something feels wrong, walk away. No room is worth your deposit.
The full method, including what each reading can and cannot establish, is on the method page.