A woman was searching for a suitable apartment for herself and her husband when she stumbled upon a curious offer. The pictures of the apartment reminded her of a video game – a clear scam?
What happened? Finding a suitable apartment is not an easy task. Especially when one faces stumbling blocks in the form of fraudulent offers.
The X user @Brujita_may wanted to find an apartment in the Spanish city of Valencia, together with her husband, who came across a quite attractive offer during the search.
However, when he showed the ad to his wife, she became suspicious. The pictures that were visible reminded her of a video game.
Sims 4 as a Means of Scam
What was visible? The apartment offer included some photos, as usual. Although “photos” is not quite accurate; “screenshots” is a better term. While the first image looked like a real facade of a house, the next ones were clearly screenshots from Sims 4 – the latest installment in a series, which was originally supposed to look different.
It seemed as though someone had built an apartment in the game and posted it as a real ad on the internet platform. The user recognized Sims 4 and uncovered the scam attempt. At first, she was shocked by it, she says. When asked, the landlords stated that the screenshots were a “projection” of what they actually expected.
The story quickly spread online and went viral. Meanwhile, the original ad has been taken offline for 425 euros per month.
Other X users ironically commented under @Brujita_may’s post that she could have activated the Sims cheat “motherlode” to quickly get the fictional currency Simoleons. Perhaps the offer could have been paid this way.
- “If I want to leave the house, does a loading screen appear?”, wonders @lakiaru on x.com.
- “But does it only contain items from the base game or do we need additional expansions?”, writes @weirdfixswift on x.com
- “The housing crisis has reached the Sims,” notes @Angelfrage on x.com.
The woman did well to be suspicious given the dubious offer. Fortunately, she knew Sims 4 and recognized the scam attempt right away. One can only hope that she eventually found a suitable apartment. Sims 4 recently received a new update, which causes broken hearts – and some other problems.
