Vacation Renters and Vacation Homeowners be aware of scams that are perpetrated by both parties!

The most common scam aimed at the Vacation Rental Owners is that of “over-payments”.  Many of these inquiries to owners are similar in the fact that the traveler suggests that their employer will be covering all travel related expenses.  The will go into detail how their employer would like to pay by a cashiers check and the amount will be significantly higher than your posted rates.  They then kindly ask for you to deposit the cashiers check and refund the difference back to them.  DO NOT DO THIS!  Several owners have been duped in the past by depositing the check and refunding a significant balance back to the traveler only to have the original cashiers check bounce!  You can typically spot these fraudulent inquiries as they are normally from foreign countries and the wording in the inquiry is very suspicious.  For example, here is a fake inquiry to a Kauai Vacation Rental:

Property Name: Poipu Kai Resort
Property Address: 1111 Pee Road
Property URL: http://www.furnishedhomes.com/home/#listings/info/112222
Name: Dagmar Condant
Email: dagmar_C@yahoo.com
Phone: 123-446-1234
Number Of Adults: 3
Number Of Children: 3
How Did You Hear?: Internet Search Engine
Arrival Date: 12/21/2008
Departure Date: 01/21/2009
Comments:  Greetings my freinds.  My employer here is advancing moneys to travel to your area.  I wokring to be sure I can enjoy a reservation well in advance of my travel.  The advance checque is for a hotel but I am thinking my wife and kids will travel also and need bigger home place like your ad.  Get back to me fast and I will be paying right off to make you comfortable with the renting homes arrangemnt. 

The tip off here is very poor grammar, free email address and the fact that he has been advanced funds.  DO NOT REPLY to this type of email.  Report it to the website that the inquiry came from and then HIT DELETE!  Vacation Rental websites hate fraud and will work to block problem emails.

The most common scam aimed at the Vacation Renter is collecting monies on a home that does not exist.  Like any internet transaction “buyer beware”.  In our vacation rental experience we have learned that it is best to pick up the phone and make a call to the owner direct.  Most often if the ad is fraudulent the “fake owner” phone number does not even work and there is no message machine.  You should be able to interview the owners or managers to your satisfaction.  The vast majority of owners are happy to give you precise details about the property, are very familiar with the surrounding area, can provide you with the specific address, are members of a trade organization, have prior guest reviews for reference and once again – they use secure payment methods.  Most travelers want to pay by credit card – it gives them peace of mind that a transaction can be disputed if fraud is involved.  You may want to consider Paypal as a convenient opton for both you and your visitors.  This method keeps “credit card” numbers out of your possesion and potential liability in your records keeping. 

Fraud prevention is important to both owners and travelers.  Most of the internet scams out there can be detected and prevented with the old addage – “If it’s too good to be true…it’s to good to be true.”