Marktplaats is where the Netherlands buys and sells everything second-hand, and as a student furnishing an empty room you will end up there within your first week. Facebook housing groups are where most international students find listings that never make it onto the paid platforms.
Both are genuinely useful. Both are also unmoderated marketplaces where the person on the other end is a stranger with no accountability, and the scams that run on them are specific and predictable. This page separates the safe uses from the ones that cost people money.
The short version
| Activity | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Buying furniture, bikes, appliances on Marktplaats | Safe, with cash on collection |
| Selling on Marktplaats | Safe, if you refuse all payment links |
| Finding room listings in Facebook groups | Useful, treat every listing as unverified |
| Paying a deposit to anyone you met on either platform, before viewing | Never |
Why rooms and furniture are different problems
When you buy a €30 desk, you go to a house, you look at the desk, you hand over cash, you carry it away. The transaction and the verification happen at the same moment. There is almost nothing to scam.
When you "rent a room", you are being asked to send several hundred euros for something you will not receive for weeks, to someone you cannot verify, on a platform with no escrow and no dispute process. That gap is the entire opportunity.
Money changes hands in person, at the same time as the thing you are buying. If a transaction requires you to pay first and trust later, it is not a Marktplaats-style transaction any more — it needs contracts and verification.
Scam 1: the fake room listing
Identical to the classic rental scam, but with a lower barrier to entry because anyone can post. A room appears in a city Facebook group at a believable price, the poster is friendly, and they need a deposit today because six other people are asking.
Everything in our deposit-before-viewing guide applies. The additional Facebook-specific checks:
- Look at the account age and history. A profile created three weeks ago with no posts, no tagged photos and eleven friends is not a person who has lived in Utrecht for four years.
- Check whether they are in the group's member list under a different name. Scammers rotate accounts and reuse listing text.
- Search the listing text in the group. Groups have a search function. The same paragraph posted by three different accounts tells you what you need to know.
- Ask the group. Post the profile link and ask if anyone has dealt with them. Someone usually has.
Scam 2: the Tikkie and payment-link trick
This one runs on Marktplaats and it targets sellers, which catches students off guard because they assume only buyers get scammed.
You list a bike. A buyer messages, keen, willing to pay the full price. They say they will send €0.01 first "to verify the account", and they send you a link — a fake Tikkie, a fake WhatsApp payment page, or a fake Marktplaats "secure payment" flow. The link opens what looks like your bank's login page.
It is a phishing page. Entering your details there hands over your online banking.
A genuine Tikkie only ever asks you to pay — it never asks you to receive money, and it never asks for your login credentials. If someone sends you a link to "receive" a payment, it is a scam every single time.
The same applies to any request to verify, activate, or confirm your account through a link. Your bank does not do this, and neither does Marktplaats.
Scam 3: the item that arrives as a photo
Less common but still around: a laptop or phone listed well below market, seller insists on shipping rather than collection, wants payment up front. Either nothing arrives or you receive a box of something else entirely.
The fix is the same as it has always been: collect in person, pay in person. If you cannot collect it yourself, it is not a deal worth having.
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Buying safely on Marktplaats
This is the part that actually works well, and most students furnish a whole room for under €200 this way.
- Filter by
ophalen(collection) rather than shipping. - Message in Dutch if you can manage a sentence.
Is dit nog beschikbaar?— "is this still available?" — gets more replies than English. - Bring exact cash. Sellers rarely want a bank transfer, and cash means the transaction ends when you leave.
- Inspect before you hand over money. Plug the appliance in. Ride the bike. Check the drawers.
- Take a friend and go during the day, especially for a first pickup in an unfamiliar neighbourhood.
- For bikes, ask where it came from. Buying an obviously stolen bike is both a crime and a very cheap way to lose a bike, since the police confiscate them.
A good second-hand bike being sold on the street for €40 in cash, with no lock key and no story about where it came from, is a stolen bike. Frame numbers are checkable, and buying stolen goods is an offence in the Netherlands.
Using Facebook housing groups well
Groups are worth being in — a real share of student rooms never gets listed anywhere else. Use them as a lead source, not a transaction platform.
- Join the groups for your specific city and university as early as you can; some have posting restrictions for new members.
- Post an introduction about yourself rather than only replying to listings. Dutch shared houses choose housemates, not tenants.
- When a listing looks real, move the conversation to a viewing — in person, or a live video call — before anything else.
- Never send a deposit to hold a place in a queue. There is no queue.
For the full picture on which platforms to prioritise, see our guide to the best websites for student housing.
If you have been scammed
Report the profile to the platform, file a fraud report at politie.nl, and if you entered banking details on a phishing page, call your bank immediately and have the account frozen. Then change the password and check for any device or authorisation you do not recognise.
Post the details in the group afterwards. It is the fastest way to stop the same account from working through the rest of the intake.
Read next
- The Deposit-Before-Viewing Scam — the version that costs the most
- Furnishing Your Dutch Room on a Budget — where to actually buy things
- Understanding Tikkie Culture — how Dutch payments normally work
Frequently asked questions
Is Marktplaats safe for international students?
Yes, for second-hand goods you collect and pay for in person. Filter listings to collection rather than shipping, bring cash, inspect the item before paying, and never accept or send a payment link. The platform is a normal part of student life here; the risk comes almost entirely from transactions that separate paying from receiving.
Someone wants to send me a small payment to verify my account. Is that normal?
No, it is a phishing scam and one of the most common in the Netherlands. Genuine Tikkie requests only ask you to pay someone, never to receive money, and no legitimate buyer or platform needs you to log into your bank through a link they sent. Ignore the message and report the account.
Are Facebook housing groups worth joining if the scam risk is that high?
Yes. A meaningful share of student rooms is only ever advertised in these groups, and many shared houses recruit housemates there rather than through paid platforms. Use them to find leads and to introduce yourself, then verify every listing properly before money is involved. The risk is in how you transact, not in being in the group.
How do I tell a stolen bike from a legitimate second-hand one?
Ask where it came from and whether they have the original keys and lock. A seller with a genuine bike can usually tell you where they bought it and hand over two keys. Very low prices for a bike in good condition, no keys, a cut lock, or a street-corner cash sale all point the same direction — and buying stolen goods is an offence, quite apart from the bike being confiscated.
What should I do first if I entered my bank details on a fake page?
Call your bank straight away and ask them to block the account and any active sessions — this matters more than anything else and is time-critical. After that, change your online banking password, check for unrecognised devices or payment authorisations, and file a report at politie.nl. Your bank will tell you whether the loss is recoverable in your specific case.