Phuket rental and property scams: how to check

Possible scam scenarios include someone posing as the owner or agent of a unit they do not actually control and asking for a deposit before any viewing or contract, or the same unit being rented or sold to more than one person at once. A clear order of checks protects you better than instinct: confirm who owns the property and whether the person you are dealing with has the right to rent or sell it, sign a contract, and only then transfer money. If you have already paid a scammer, call the 1441 hotline the same day and file a police report without delay — an account frozen quickly gives you a better chance of recovering something.

Checking the owner and documents before you pay

How you check a Phuket landlord or a condo owner depends on what you are renting or buying, but the question is always the same: does this person control the property, and is what they are showing you genuine.

What to check	Shown by	Where
Who owns the land	Title deed and registry entry	Local Land Office
Right used for a house or villa	Freehold, registered lease, or superficies	Local Land Office
The building itself	Checked separately from the land right	Local Land Office
A condo unit	Unit title, debt-free letter, foreign-quota letter	Land Office and the condo's juristic person
Right to rent or sell for someone else	Contract with the owner or a power of attorney; a subletting tenant needs a clause allowing it	Ask the other side, compare with owner's details
A selling company or developer	Company registration	DBD, DataWarehouse+
The person in front of you	Passport matching the title, contract or power of attorney	In person, before you pay

Under Land Department guidance, anyone can apply to inspect land records and request copies at the office that holds them, not only someone with a direct interest in the plot; a refusal has to be in writing and give reasons, and you can appeal it within 15 days. You file at the office covering the land's location and give the title number, the documents you want, and why. Our lawyers request these records and check them against the contract before you pay anything.

The Land Department's own LandsMaps portal, reached through a ThaID login, shows a plot's boundaries, area and assessed value, but it is not proof of ownership — only the records held at the Land Office are.

Before you transfer any money, work through four steps in order:

1. Match the name on the title deed against the seller or landlord's passport, or against their power of attorney if they are acting for someone else.
2. Identify the type of title. A Chanote is full ownership backed by a GPS survey; other documents give weaker rights.
3. Ask the Land Office whether the title carries a mortgage, a seizure or a dispute.
4. Sign a contract that names who receives the money, and pay only into that account.

We cover how to tell a Chanote from weaker documents in reading a chanote and other title deeds. If you are buying a condo, work through the condo buyer's checklist as well.

Common rental scams: fake listings and absentee "owners"

Apply the same checks to listings received through Facebook groups, property marketplaces and direct messages on Instagram or WhatsApp — the giveaway is usually what you are asked to do before you have even seen the place.

Someone else's photos and a price that looks too good. A listing is built from pictures of a real unit, priced low enough that you want to grab it immediately, and then comes the pressure: other people are supposedly interested, and the only way to "hold" the unit is a deposit. Being asked to pay before a viewing and before any contract is a reason to slow down, not proof on its own that you are being scammed.

"The owner is abroad." You are told the owner lives overseas and an agent will hand over the keys once the deposit clears, but no document shows that the agent is actually authorised to act for the owner. We check the paperwork — a contract between the owner and the agent, or a power of attorney — rather than take someone's word that "the owner knows about this."

Subletting without the right to do it. Someone who rents the unit themselves re-lets it to you and keeps your deposit. Under section 544 of the Civil and Commercial Code, a tenant cannot sublet or assign a lease unless their own contract allows it, and breaking that rule lets the real owner end the lease — your own right to stay disappears along with theirs, and you are left chasing the money from whoever you actually paid.

Daily bookings in a condo. The Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004) treats letting a place for under 30 days as a hotel business that needs a licence, and a condo let that way without one is an unlicensed hotel. Ask whether the host holds that licence before you pay. If the booking falls through, the refund position needs a separate review of the agreement and applicable law. The proposed reform has not become law; the existing licensing rules still apply.

Purchase scams: a unit that isn't theirs, double sales, fake titles

Buying follows the same playbook as renting, just with more money at stake. Before transferring money, ask your bank what steps are available if you discover fraud.

Selling something they do not own. A seller shows a copy of the title and a passport, but a seller's copy alone does not establish current ownership or the current encumbrance position. Ask the Land Office covering the property for current registration details, including any registered encumbrance; past disputes and transaction history are checked as part of a proper due-diligence review.

Double sales. The same unit is promised to two buyers, each of whom signs a reservation and pays. To avoid being the second buyer, tie any large payment to registration of the transfer at the Land Office, not to signing a reservation form.

"Buy land through a company." A foreigner cannot own land in Thailand (Land Code s. 86). A company where Thai shareholders hold shares on paper while a foreigner actually controls and funds it is a nominee structure, and section 36 of the Foreign Business Act makes both the Thai nominee and the foreign principal liable: up to three years in prison, a fine of roughly THB 100,000–1,000,000, or both. Phuket is one of the provinces where the Land Department has scrutinised land deals more closely since May 2026. If a seller offers land in your name through a company, we advise stopping: the lawful routes are a condo unit within the 49% foreign quota under the Condominium Act, or a villa bought on a leasehold — a standard way for a foreigner to buy a house in Phuket, registered at the Land Office for up to 30 years under section 540 of the Civil and Commercial Code.

A unit with unpaid common-area fees. Before you pay, ask the condo's juristic person for a current debt-free letter and check what the Land Office needs to register the transfer. A seller who asks for payment without that letter is giving you a reason to stop and look closer.

For an off-plan purchase, add a check of the developer itself — the company, its permits and the land under the project. Our property due diligence service covers what that involves.

Paying a deposit or a reservation safely

The question "I'm being asked for a deposit — what guarantees do I have" starts with the contract, not with the transfer.

Under section 538 of the Civil and Commercial Code, a lease of immovable property cannot be enforced in court without a written document signed by the party taking on the obligation, and a lease over three years has to be registered or it is only enforceable for three. That is why the contract comes before the money, not after.

Send the deposit to the account held by the owner or the company named in the contract — a transfer to a third party "on the owner's instructions" is hard to trace back to the agreement later. When you move in, sign a condition report with photos; it is useful evidence if a deposit dispute comes up later.

Landlords who let three or more units have followed a Consumer Protection Board notice since 4 September 2025 that caps the deposit plus advance rent at three months' rent for monthly lets and sets return deadlines after the lease ends. A landlord with one or two units is not bound by that notice, so the amount and the return terms come from your own contract.

For a purchase, money can run through an escrow arrangement under the Escrow Act B.E. 2551 (2008): the agent has to be a bank or an entity licensed by the Ministry of Finance. Escrow is not compulsory, and funds should be released only once the transfer is registered. Separately, since 31 January 2025 a Consumer Protection Board notice treats a condominium reservation as a controlled-contract business: it sets a standard Thai-language reservation form and stops a developer from keeping your reservation money if you have not broken the agreement.

If you've already flown home

Being back in the UK, the US or Australia does not close the door on a Phuket scam, but it changes how you act.

A Thai lawyer can represent you in civil proceedings and handle authorised Land Office steps. Confirm separately whether the police require your personal attendance and what authority they will accept. Sign that power of attorney outside Thailand and expect a chain of notarisation, certification by your own foreign ministry and the Thai embassy covering your country; the exact order depends on where you sign, so check with that embassy first.

Whether a claim for frozen funds through AMLO can be filed from abroad or in English has no official guidance yet. Treat any promise that it can be done quickly and online with the same caution you applied to the original listing. Our team works in English and Russian. We can help identify the documents and authority needed for representation while you are abroad.

If you've been scammed: first steps

Before you decide where to go, it helps to name what actually happened, because that decides who can help.

Situation	What it is	Where to start
The listing was fake and the money is gone	Fraud, a criminal matter	1441 and a police report
A tenant sublet without the right to do it	Breach of their own lease; fraud if they lied about owning it	Contact the real owner and the person you paid
A real owner will not return a deposit	A civil dispute under the lease	A written demand, then a complaint or a claim

1. Save the chat, the listing, the receiving account number and your transfer receipts. Take screenshots immediately, before the other side deletes anything.
2. Call the 1441 hotline run by the Anti Online Scam Operation Center at the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. It is phone-only, around the clock, and does not take reports through social media. Choose option 1 to report the scammer's account and ask for it to be frozen; after the bank verifies your identity, you have seven days to see an investigating officer at a police station. How long the freeze lasts depends on the banking regulators' own rules, so ask your bank and the 1441 line about that specific account.
3. File a police report in person at a station, or online at thaipoliceonline.go.th — the only official channel; reports made through Facebook are not accepted.
4. Do not wait to file. Fraud under section 341 and aggravated fraud under section 342 of the Criminal Code are compoundable offences under section 348, and public fraud under section 343 is not; ask a Thai lawyer promptly about the exact time limit that applies to your case and when it starts to run.
5. Watch for an AMLO notice. A ministerial regulation in force since 12 August 2026 lets victims of technology-enabled crime get frozen money back without a court case: once AMLO publishes a notice in the Royal Gazette, victims have 90 days to file a claim with evidence, free of charge. The Transaction Committee under the Anti-Money Laundering Act may order a refund without a court order. A party who disagrees with the decision may apply to the Civil Court within 30 days of being notified. Money mixed with other victims' funds in the same account is divided in proportion to each loss, so you may recover less than you lost.

Fraud under section 341 carries up to three years in prison or a fine of up to THB 60,000, or both; impersonation under section 342 or defrauding the public under section 343 can bring up to five years or a fine of up to THB 100,000, or both. Whether the Computer Crime Act B.E. 2550 also applies depends on the facts and requires a separate legal assessment.

What hasn't been officially clarified yet

No official guidance yet covers four points: how long an account stays frozen after a 1441 report, whether an AMLO claim needs a police case number, whether that claim can be filed from abroad or in English, and whether the 1441 line itself offers English-language service.

If you are being pressured for a deposit, or you have already sent money, book a consultation; the fee is [price]. We will work out which of the three situations above applies to you and help prepare a report and evidence in Thai.

Where to go: police, tourist police, AMLO, a lawyer

Where	What they do	What not to expect
The 1441 hotline	Reports a scammer's account, asks the bank to freeze it	Does not return money itself
Police: a station or thaipoliceonline.go.th	Takes your report, runs the criminal case	Won't collect a deposit from a real landlord
Tourist Police, 1155	May help with a conversation between the parties	Can't force a refund; its role here isn't officially defined
AMLO	Reviews claims to frozen money	No full-refund guarantee with several victims
A lawyer	Prepares your report and evidence in Thai, represents you by power of attorney, brings a civil claim	No lawyer can guarantee an outcome

Our lawyers are licensed by the Lawyers Council of Thailand and work in English, Russian and Thai, as explained on our lawyer in Phuket page.

What next

If you are buying, start with a due-diligence check before the first payment: our lawyers verify the title, the seller and the contract. If you are renting and a listing looks wrong, or you have already paid, message us on Telegram or WhatsApp, or leave a request on the site. We agree the cost before any work starts, with no hidden fees.