Don't take Vacation Rental Payments by Check

One of my subscribers recently sent me another example of a vacation  rentals scam, which I  have published below. Similar to other scams, the basic ruse is to give you a payment by check which is for more than the rental amount and ask you to send back  the excess. Of course, the check will turn out to be invalid and will bounce, leaving you out of pocket. 

Kevin


From: kenny gibson
Subject: Re: still interested
Date: Monday, May 13, 2013, 1:22 AM

I am glad to hear back from you. I am still very much

interested in the vacation rental and I am Ok with the

arrangements that have been made so far.I will pay the

total cost at once which will include any security

deposit.

 

Concerning payment for the rental,the money will be

made available in form of money order/cashiers check.

because I had earlier made arrangements with another

vacation rental owner before travelling early this

month but part of his house got burnt and we had to

cancel the booking.It may interest you to know that

this is the second time we were to go there but

since the place is not available I had to look for an

alternative  and your accommodation rate is far more

reasonable than the last one .

 

The owner is paying me back a refund and right now I

am not in the country to receive the money so I am

going to tell him to make out the funds in your

name.this is the best way for easy and quick payment

as he is also in the US.

The payment will be worth about $4500 . This is the

total sum he is to pay back because we were to stay

in his house for the whole month.

 

All I want you to do when you receive the money is to

deduct your own money for the rental and the security

deposit and send the remaining funds via WESTERNUNION

this way:

1) 3000 usd to the travel agency that will make

reservations for our travel tickets

All charges for the transfer will be payed by

me.

 

Please let me know if this is OK so I can forward

your information for payment. Please

note that you will be payed an extra 100 usd for your

effort. I will need this information from you:

Name:

Address:

State:

Zipcode:

Telephone no:

 

I will also give you my contact details as soon as we

have an agreement.

Hope to hear from you soon

Kenny..

Washington Post Vacation Rental Article and Reviews

Buy a 12 month listing on VRBO and get the 13th month free. Use coupon code CJQ4.

Following on from my recent post about Vacation Rental Scams, the Washington Post recently had an article about a Vacation Rental that was also "too good to be true". However, in this case, the main issue was that, according to the renter, the reviews of the rental property (posted on Homeaway) turned out to be far too favorable and hence misleading.

The apartment that Frank Leibsly rented in London turned out not to be the "five star" experience he expected. He posted a suitably negative "one star" review on Homeaway, which was as first removed and then re-instated.

Most owners worry about recieving a negative review and  this can, in fact, deter them from even asking for a review from their renters.

However, this article highlights another potentially disturbing issue with reviews: are they real or are they, in fact, posted by the vacation rental owners to create a misleadingly positive impression of the vacation rental property?

There is anecdotal evidence that the number of misleading reviews is increasing.

However, Research indicates that overall, posting reviews has a positive impact on attracting renters. Nevertheless, if there are more experiences such as this one, those impressions may change.

Avoiding Online Vacation Rental Scams

Buy a 12 month listing on VRBO and get the 13th month free. Use coupon code CJQ4.

ABC News recently ran a feature on Vacation Rental scams, focusing in on "too good to be true" deals in the New York area.

Scammers use sites such as Craigslist or Backpage to advertise fake properties, usually using photos taken from real vacation rentals. They ask for a certain amount of money up front, either via Western Union or through an intermediate bank account and then, when you show up to avail of the rental ..... they are nowhere to be seen!

From the Scammers point of view, one of the advantages of sites such as Craigslist is the fact that they don't need to register and pay for an annual listing and hence can more easily "hit and run", before moving on to the next target.

ABC's recommendation is to stick with the "more reputable" vacation rental sites, like VRBO (or you can find others listed on COHR). With a little bit of due diligence, you can be more confident that the listings on these sites are genuine. For example, these sites charge an annual listing fee and many of them clearly show how long each listing has been active: listings that have been there for more than a year are unlikely to be spammers.

Also, many of these sites feature guest reviews: although it is possible to fake these, most sites take at least some steps to ensure the reviews are genuine.

Although not completely immune to scammers, you can certainly reduce the risk by sticking to the larger vacation rental sites.