Scammed, Silenced and Scrolling: Wollongong Residents Speak Out on the Duplicate Image Problem

Wollongong renters and small business operators say they are being routinely misled by duplicate and outdated images posted to online listings, with some reporting they have paid holding deposits on properties that looked nothing like the photographs shown to them.

The issue — broadly described as duplicate image replacement, where old or doctored photographs are reused across multiple listings or substituted for accurate current images — has drawn growing frustration across the Illawarra, particularly as the rental vacancy rate in Greater Wollongong sat at roughly 1.2 percent for the June 2026 quarter, according to figures cited by the Illawarra Regional Information Service. In a market that tight, applicants say they cannot afford to lose a weekend viewing a property that was misrepresented from the start.

The timing matters. Sydney's record-breaking June heat — the hottest since 1859, according to Bureau of Meteorology data reported this week — has pushed more people toward Wollongong as a coastal alternative, intensifying demand just as housing advocacy groups warn that supply is not keeping pace. The Illawarra Shoalhaven Regional Development Fund has flagged housing affordability as a priority investment area, but construction lags mean the pressure on existing stock remains acute.

Crown Street to Fairy Meadow: What Residents Are Saying

Community members describing their experiences — gathered through a Wollongong Community Facebook group with more than 34,000 members and at two drop-in sessions held at Wollongong Library on Crown Street in late June — paint a consistent picture. Prospective tenants say they applied for units in suburbs including Fairy Meadow, Coniston and Corrimal after seeing bright, renovated interiors in listings, only to find properties with peeling paint, broken fixtures or entirely different floor plans upon inspection.

One thread that circulated widely in the group described a two-bedroom unit advertised near the intersection of Keira Street and Bourke Street in Wollongong's inner north. The listing images appeared to show a renovated kitchen with stone benchtops; the actual unit had a laminate kitchen that several commenters estimated was at least 15 years old. The post attracted more than 200 comments within 48 hours, with many users sharing similar experiences.

Small businesses listing on classified platforms have raised parallel concerns. Operators in Wollongong's Northbeach precinct and along Kembla Street say competitors have reused professional photographs from previous tenancies — sometimes from entirely different premises — to attract foot traffic and online inquiries, creating confusion for customers and damaging the reputations of legitimate operators.

Platforms, Rules and What Comes Next

Under the Australian Consumer Law, representations made in trade or commerce — including images used in commercial listings — must not be misleading or deceptive. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission handles complaints at the federal level, while NSW Fair Trading has jurisdiction over rental property conduct under the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Tenants and consumers can lodge complaints with NSW Fair Trading at its Wollongong office on Burelli Street, though advocates say enforcement is slow and individual remedies are limited.

The Illawarra Community Legal Centre, based in Wollongong's CBD, has noted an uptick in tenancy-related inquiries in the first half of 2026, though the centre has not publicly broken out image-related complaints as a discrete category. The University of Wollongong's law clinic, operating from the Northfields Avenue campus, offers free advice to eligible residents and has been handling an increased caseload of consumer and tenancy matters since January.

For residents dealing with the problem now, advocates suggest documenting discrepancies between listed images and physical inspections with time-stamped photographs, and reporting misleading listings to both the relevant platform and NSW Fair Trading before paying any holding deposit. Wollongong Community Legal Centre can be reached on 4228 8522 and offers walk-in appointments on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Tenants Union NSW also maintains a free advice line for renters navigating disputes across the state.

The community sessions at Wollongong Library are expected to continue monthly through the remainder of 2026, with the next one scheduled for late July.