‘Phishing’ Scam Hitting Holiday Rental Customers
In a story from the Washington Post, entitled ‘Vacation rental phishing scams are a familiar, frustrating story’ it once again appears that the holiday rental industry still has some bugs to iron out.
This ‘phishing’ type of scam is so-called as the scammer uses bait to gain access to a person’s email address and password, usually by emailing them a link and saying something like ‘Wow this is mad awesome I suggest you check it out!’
The recipient, eager to view the clearly thrilling content of the link, clicks on it – but wait, for some odd reason they need to log back into their Hotmail/Gmail/Facebook, etc. before the link works.. so they do. – But in reality, what has just happened is they typed their login information on a site that looks like Hotmail/Gmail/Facebook – a ploy made by the scammer to get them to type their password on a site they control. The scammer now has access to their email!
The scammers can then impersonate the homeowner, by intercepting their emails and responding. This means a genuine customer is paying for a genuine property using the correct correspondence address, but the payment will go to the scam artist who is the one who provides the payment details…
It’s not clear how the scams occur to most people, so many will point the finger to the holiday rental site. The matter is in fact out of their control.
Modern email systems such as Google and Facebook help you protect yourself against scammers who have your password, by using a double login, where the password is needed but so is a unique code sent to your phone which only ever works once. This way you need the password and the phone – much more secure.
If somebody does access your account, Gmail also will usually notice and warn you to change your password. You should also check that your inbound mail has not been set to copy to somebody else mailbox (all they need is one-time access to your email after which they can pretend to be you without ever having to log in again!)
The best most effective way though, to avoid causing this kind of scam, or never to click a suspicious link, and look out for bogus ‘log in’ sites.
And, when paying somebody, confirm their identity, perhaps by ringing the number listed on their advert.
Vacation Rental Scam
A lot of people looking for their time daydreaming of a really nice vacation to places like California or Miami in Florida where the sun is shining bright and the weather is warm and cozy.
Maybe you are thinking of booking a spontaneous trip, but you need to be careful because scammers are working overtime to get your money.
This is always a concern, but Florida actually issues a warning about vacation scams in the area. he attorney general said people should be careful about the common vacation rental scam because it is ramping up. The price tends to be pretty cheap for you to get your vacation rental.
Imagine you are going to Florida, and only you found out that the place that you thought you are going to doesn’t exist. This is happening.
This is the fake listing scams and people falling for it. The scammer will make an online advertisement design to hurl in consumers.
The price is very attractive and you just can’t resist making the booking. But normally you will get scammed where you will later found out that your rental place does not exist or it is already rented out by a reputable agency.
They just copy over all the detail from a genuine agency. This is something that you need to look out to when you are looking for your vacation.
Fake Advertisement
Most scammers are making use of Craigslist when they want to scam money from people through vacation rentals. I had a friend who told me that she bought a home not long ago and the past summer somebody took all the pictures of her home and list on Craigslist.
Some scammers will also list other people’s homes on a real estate for sale website whether it’s on realtor.com, Zillow or whatever and try to scam people.
They have copied all the pictures and they placed a property for rent on Craigslist. So they have all the pictures of the home as they appeared on a real estate website. They’re throwing it out there at an incredible price. The rental price on the market would typically be $1,600 to $2,000 but they advertised for just $900. With such a low price, they will easily hook you in.
Airbnb Scam
I have a friend who is running an Airbnb VRBO room out of her place. One day, someone hit her up and saying that he wanted to rent her room for 4 days. He said his company doesn’t deal with Airbnb and ask if it is possible for him to just send her a check.
For 4 days my friend charges would be $400. But this guy said since this can be a rare scenario for my friend, his company is willing to pay for more where he offered to pay my friend $600, so is a 150% more profit.
My friend was feeling quite fishy but she wanted to figure out whether it is a scam or not, so she agreed with the guy for the price. She wants to see what would happen then.
The guy acted very nicely as he gave my friend his contact number, they were texted and communicate well. After 2 days, he was texting my friend something like his company accidentally send my friend a check for more than they were supposed to be. But it is already sent in the mail. And he asks my friend when she gets the check, can she just cut the difference over to his bank account?
So, when the money was supposed to come you need to go to others, then it is a red flag.
When my friend receives the check, it was written with $1,800 there, which means his company is paying more than $1,200 for the room rental. She asks him what company is he working for as she just wanted him to confirm it’s the same company name as stated in the check. The guy is stating correctly for his company name.
My friend then went to the bank and tell the banker lady that the check seems a little odd without telling her the story. So what she does is she first touch the top of the check. She then told my friend the tops is not perforated. Normally on a check, the top would be perforated from where it got torn off.
But the banker lady then told my friend that sometimes people do print the checkout, so it could be legit. What she does next is she runs the check through their little machine and this time she found the check was voided on the paper.
Therefore, my friend knew the check is a fake one and she just ignored the guy afterward.
Anyone ever sends you a check and asked you to wire them or cut them the difference, this is just a big red flag. Never do any wire transfer unless it’s like a family or a friend that you trust. There are many online scamming that involved wire transfer and you should be aware of not falling into it.
How to Identify Fake Vacation Rental Scam?
Generally, the scammer will demand immediate payment. They would want to only communicate with you via email. They won’t provide you their phone number. Even they give you the contact number, it will be a foreign phone number. They will have minimal photos for their listing and they always asking for cash.
If you see a listing that matches all the signs as stated above, it is most probably a scammed listing. You better look out and go elsewhere.
If they ask you to wire money, do not do it. If you wire them money, you will not be able to get back your money.
If they ask you to send it to a PO Box, you should be also aware as this most probably is a scam. Do not do it.
If you cannot speak to them directly or have a place to go to meet them. Meet them at the property so that you can preview it. Otherwise, you may get scammed by these scammers and you are going to lose your money. It happens every single year.
My advice to you is the call a licensed realtor that offers vacation rentals. I really encourage you to use a real estate office or somebody that’s you can speak to.
Before you speak to somebody on the phone, check out the property if you can trace the number. Try to look for them on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Follow their story a little bit and do a little research.
There will be people go down the shore, packed in their car for vacation. They get to the property and only found out somebody’s already occupied the property.
If you have fallen into the scam, you can raise the issue to the attorney general in that particular state and they will try their best to help you.