Immoscout scam or just paranoid?

This is totally normal in Berlin. A lot of landlords use the current tenants as a first filter, and the agent is probably managing multiple viewings that day from home. I'd be more suspicious if they asked you to wire a deposit before even seeing the place, or if the rent seemed way too cheap for the neighborhood like Neukolln or Friedrichshain. Just go to the viewing, take a look at the condition of the apartment, and only sign or pay anything once you've met the landlord or their actual representative.

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yeah this is actually super common in berlin, especially for WG or private rentals where the landlord lives in another city or works weird hours. the current tenant is basically doing a favor, sometimes they even get a small discount on rent for it. just don't hand over any money or personal docs like a scan of your ID until you've seen the place in person and signed something. if they ask for a deposit before the viewing, that's the red flag

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This is pretty standard for Berlin, especially with smaller landlords or ones who don't live in the city. The current tenants are usually just doing the landlord a favor, and it's not a red flag on its own. What I'd watch for is how they handle the paperwork afterward if you decide to take it. If they rush you into paying a deposit via PayPal or Western Union before you've even signed the lease, that's the scam. But the viewing setup itself is fine.

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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