Wollongong Residents Speak Out as Scammers Steal Their Photos and Sell Them Back as 'New' Listings

Homeowners and renters across the Illawarra have been discovering their property photos, taken by real estate agents, lifted from old listings, or scraped from social media, reappearing in fraudulent advertisements on major platforms, sometimes for properties that have already sold or never existed as advertised. The problem has grown loud enough that Wollongong Community Legal Centre on Keira Street fielded a noticeable uptick in related inquiries during the first half of 2026, according to staff there who declined to be identified pending an internal review of the matter.

The timing matters. Wollongong's rental vacancy rate has been sitting well below two percent for the better part of two years, making desperate tenants easier targets for anyone willing to post a convincing fake listing. When supply is this tight, people hand over holding deposits before they have even walked through a door. NSW Fair Trading lists duplicate-image property fraud as an active concern category on its public complaints register, and housing advocates in the region say the Illawarra's particular mix of a university population and a blue-collar workforce, many of them relocated workers connected to the BlueScope transition and the Port Kembla Renewable Energy Zone projects, makes it a recurring hunting ground.

What Community Members Are Actually Experiencing

Affected residents describe variations of the same script. A listing appears on a well-known classifieds site showing a tidy three-bedroom home in Fairy Meadow or a unit near the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus on Squires Way. The rent is slightly below market, just plausible enough. A contact responds quickly, explains they are interstate or overseas, and requests a deposit via bank transfer before an inspection can be arranged. By the time the prospective tenant shows up at the address, a legitimate tenant is already living there and the listing photos turn out to have been pulled from a 2023 Domain or realestate.com.au campaign.

Landlords and original sellers also report the frustration of finding their homes used as bait without their knowledge. One Crown Street West apartment complex in Wollongong CBD had images of its interior showing up in at least three separate fraudulent listings across different platforms within a six-month window, according to the property manager's office, though that office declined to comment further on the record.

Advocacy groups including Illawarra Legal Centre and the Tenants' Union of NSW have both published guidance in 2025 and 2026 urging renters to reverse-image-search every property photo before paying any money. Google Lens can identify a reused image in under ten seconds. The advice sounds simple. In practice, people rushed by a competitive market and anxious about missing out often skip it.

Where the System Falls Short

Platforms are supposed to verify listings, but enforcement is patchy and complaints can take weeks to resolve. NSW Fair Trading can investigate and issue fines under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, but the agency has limited reach over private-party listings that do not involve a licensed agent. That jurisdictional gap is where most duplicate-image fraud currently lives.

Wollongong City Council has no direct regulatory role in online listing fraud, but community services staff at the Beaton Park Leisure Centre and libraries such as Fairy Meadow Library have been directing residents to the federal Scamwatch portal run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which tracks financial losses from property scams nationally. The ACCC's 2025 Scamwatch annual report recorded more than $4.7 million lost to rental and real estate scams across Australia that year, a figure advocates say is significantly undercounted because most victims do not report.

Anyone who suspects a listing is using stolen images should document the URL immediately, run a reverse image search, report to Scamwatch at scamwatch.gov.au, and contact NSW Fair Trading on 13 32 20. Wollongong Community Legal Centre on Keira Street offers free initial consultations on Tuesdays and Thursdays for residents who have already lost money. Do not pay a deposit for any Illawarra property without first attending an in-person inspection accompanied by a signed tenancy agreement, and verify the person handing you the key is the actual licensed agent or owner.