So I want to rent an apartment in the Netherlands but the price for such an apartment is quite low and I am proceeding with caution. Do you think that this is a scam or does booking.com really do this? He sent me an id and a contract.

Ok, This is me. This is how the process is working. I am telling you from the start, so we will not have discussions. I will contact Booking, and i will pay 79 euro, to use this service. I will give Booking all my document and Documents regarding the apartment. Booking will check to see if everything is in order. If all the bills are paid, and all that stuff. After that, Booking will contact you, with all the instructions on how this is working and how you need to do the security deposit.

You do not pay in advance. You make the deposit in Booking, and Booking will keep your money there, until we meet and we make the renting contract. You will have a PIN. When we meet, you check the apartment, if it is ok for you, you just confirm to Booking with your PIN, that you rented, and in that moment, Booking will wire the money to me. If you do not want it, you just cancel everything with your PIN, and Booking will wire the money back to your account. Do you understand? I don't want to use this, but, I was once in Eindhoven to meet with a potential tenant and he did not have enough money to rent it. So please let me know if you agree with my terms . Looking forward to hear from you.

Thanks for your time!

ps. the landlord is currently in England and wants the deposit as the previous potential tenant agreed with everything but in the end did not have the money and the landlord flew for nothing.