Projects

01Anatomy of a Scam

Anatomy of a Scam turns the mechanics of housing fraud in Berlin into a spatial experience.

The walk at 48 Stunden Neukölln, July 2026
The walk at 48 Stunden Neukölln, July 2026. Postcards and booklets on the table.

A scam is built like a flat, room by room.

The bait: entrance, seduction. The hook: living room, transaction. The archive: attic, fragmented truths. Hidden doors: basement, blank sites. The ghost: bedroom, collapse.

The scams are crude. Across eleven conversations the same script returns, in two languages and broken German. The same photographs appear under two addresses. It works because it copies a market that already behaves this way: documents before a viewing, many other applicants, an absent owner, a decision to be made fast. The scam only removes the flat.

Since 2025, AI has removed the broken German and the copied photos that gave these scams away. The current phase moves offline and from renting to buying: staged viewings in short-let flats, copied agency websites, invented notaries in property sales, public court hearings, and the application folder itself, the Schufa, payslips and references that decide who gets in, and that scammers ask for too.

Postcards: twelve slogans, by Zimmerdruck.

Images and texts come from the fieldwork and scam-baiting correspondence of Eva Kuta, a fictional person, edited and interpreted for critical and artistic purposes only. Names and identifying details of the senders are withheld.

CategoryUrban research
MethodCorrespondence with the senders of fake rental listings under the alter ego Eva Kuta, until 2025; an archive of 21 listings; the 20 addresses checked on site; public readings of the correspondence
PlaceBerlin
Year2023 – ongoing
PressZimmerdruck: publishing, design and printing. Self-produced
SelectedSpotlight LINA Fellow 2026
Online@traumraum.space
MitteFriedrichshain-KreuzbergPankowCharlottenburg-WilmersdorfSteglitz-ZehlendorfTempelhof-SchönebergNeukölln01 Behaimstraße, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, 2 listings102 Selchower Straße, Neukölln203 Beusselstraße, Mitte304 Behrenstraße, Mitte405 Lehrter Straße, Mitte506 Guineastraße, Mitte607 Stallschreiberstraße, Mitte708 Birkenstraße, Mitte809 Prenzlauer Allee, Pankow910 Stralauer Allee, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg1011 Torstraße, Mitte1112 Goethestraße, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf1213 Alte Jakobstraße, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg1314 Choriner Straße, Pankow, 2 addresses1415 Elisabethkirchstraße, Mitte, 2 addresses1516 Richardstraße, Neukölln1617 Leipziger Straße, Mitte1718 Charlottenstraße, Mitte18
Address used in a fake listing Visited during 48 Stunden Neukölln, 202620 addresses in 21 fake listings, shown by street only. Working map ↗
  1. 01Behaimstraße, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, 2 listings
  2. 02Selchower Straße, Neukölln
  3. 03Beusselstraße, Mitte
  4. 04Behrenstraße, Mitte
  5. 05Lehrter Straße, Mitte
  6. 06Guineastraße, Mitte
  7. 07Stallschreiberstraße, Mitte
  8. 08Birkenstraße, Mitte
  9. 09Prenzlauer Allee, Pankow
  10. 10Stralauer Allee, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
  11. 11Torstraße, Mitte
  12. 12Goethestraße, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
  13. 13Alte Jakobstraße, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
  14. 14Choriner Straße, Pankow, 2 addresses
  15. 15Elisabethkirchstraße, Mitte, 2 addresses
  16. 16Richardstraße, Neukölln
  17. 17Leipziger Straße, Mitte
  18. 18Charlottenstraße, Mitte
Photos from the listing, 23 June 2024
Photos from the listing, 23 June 2024. A real flat in Croatia.
Emails between Eva Kuta and the sender of the listing, 21 June to 5 July 2024, 4/4
Emails between Eva Kuta and the sender of the listing, 21 June to 5 July 2024, 4/4.
The same emails in German, 2/4
The same emails in German, 2/4.
First trial: the booklet cover, with needle and red thread
First trial: the booklet cover, with needle and red thread. TRAUMRAUM: Anatomy of a Scam, Eva Kuta, Berlin / Online, 2024–2025. Design: Zimmerdruck © TRAUMRAUM
First trial: ZR01 How to Become a Scammer
First trial: ZR01 How to Become a Scammer. A Protocol. Printed and designed at Zimmerdruck, 2025 © TRAUMRAUM
The series ZR01 to ZR05, work in progress, with postcards and printed scam messages
The series ZR01 to ZR05, work in progress, with postcards and printed scam messages. Zimmerdruck © TRAUMRAUM
Postcards, a series of twelve
Postcards, a series of twelve. Zimmerdruck © TRAUMRAUM
TRAUMRAUM wordmark, sketches and tracing paper, 2025
TRAUMRAUM wordmark, sketches and tracing paper, 2025. Design: Zimmerdruck © TRAUMRAUM
Conversations11, July 2023 to June 2025
Addresses on the map20, in 21 listings
Average advertised rent631 € per month
Third party collecting the deposit4 of 11
Ending in silence or a blank message5 of 11
Handout and stickers, 48 Stunden Neukölln, July 2026
Handout and stickers, 48 Stunden Neukölln, July 2026. Stickers: Zimmerdruck © TRAUMRAUM
The same walk
The same walk. Everyone checks the postcards on their phones.
A sticker in a shop window, Berlin
A sticker in a shop window, Berlin. Sticker: Zimmerdruck © TRAUMRAUM

Sources

  1. Baus, Ursula. “Bringt uns Arbeit.” Marlowes, October 13, 2026. https://www.marlowes.de/bringt-uns-arbeit/.
  2. BMI. “Das Meldewesen.” Verwaltungsrecht: Meldewesen, 2026.
  3. Enne, Lena. Anmeldung not possible: Das Scheinanmelden als Aspekt informeller Wohnpraxis in Berlin. Everyday Urban Design 8. Berlin: botopress, 2024.
  4. Graham, Mark, Rob Kitchin, Shannon Mattern, and Joe Shaw, eds. How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables. London: Meatspace Press, 2019.
  5. Investitionsbank Berlin. IBB Wohnungsmarktbericht 2025. Berlin: Investitionsbank Berlin, 2025.
  6. McFarlane, Colin. “Rethinking Informality: Politics, Crisis, and the City.” Planning Theory & Practice 13, no. 1 (2012): 89–108.
  7. Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen. Berliner Mietspiegel 2026. Berlin: Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen, 2026.