The technological advancements and internet innovations have also led to several online frauds/scams. In fact, it has become a severe matter of consideration that requires an attentive and serious look at all. Today, we will dwell on vacation rental scams, which is another dreadful prospect when it comes to booking holiday packages online. During recent years, it has emerged significantly to pose the society at threat of online rip-offs and swindles.
Are you planning to book your next summer holiday itinerary? If yes, most probably you will search the web for the best (most affordable, in fact) vacation package available with magnificent services. Today, most of the property owners advertise their homes vacant for holiday celebrations. You can connect to the owners to rent a house or condo after witnessing their online advertisements.
What is the guarantee that the person you are dealing with is a genuine and authorized identity, not a scam? This is the moment you fall victim to vacation rental frauds. There are countless fake advertisers out there in the market to dupe you in the name of online vacation bookings. They create imitated and phony online ads with alluring design to seem like an authenticated service provider. Their most effective weapon is the lowest price figure that is enough to deceive you.
Furthermore, the fraudsters also own several fake websites of online chalet rentals, apartment rentals bookings etc. The ultimate motive is just to make you deposit the upfront by assuring you of the best holiday packages at stunningly lowest prices. You follow their offerings blindly to evoke the apartment rental scams.
Surest Signs of Vacation Rental Scams | Things to Keep in Mind While Renting a Vacation Home
Online vacation rental fraud cases have increased rapidly during the last few years. Therefore, you must be aware of such swindlers, especially while making online payments of any kind. However, prevention is better than cure, and a bit common sense is enough to escape you from such unpleasant incidents. Beware of the following red flags to avoid falling prey to online vacation rental scams:
Never get impressed with the ad photos: Scammers tend to entrap visitors with appealing photograph contents. They design beautiful ads with alluring snaps of homes, condos to make you click the ad. Make sure to ask for more photos. An authentic company will be successful in managing the same for you.
Scammers offer you the lowest prices: Secondly, fraudsters often try to please you with the lowest prices in the current market. You can compare their packages with some other providers. If you find the prices to be astoundingly low, feel safe to step down.
They prefer to communicate via email: This is another sign of villa rental scam when the advertiser asks you to contact via email only. Think it a red flag when he/she avoids answering your phone calls saying they are out of the country.
Fraudsters will insist you to pay money in cash or wire transfer: This is the explicit mode of vacation rental scam when the company ask you to deposit money in cash or via wire transfer. Once you did this, you left with no clue of safety.
Safety Measures Against Online Rental Scams
Following are some of the effective measures you can consider to prevent holiday rental scams:
- First, you can check the property yourself before paying an advance. Search engines are helpful in this regard. Type and search for the company name, its address, emails, phone numbers and others. You will surely find the red flags if any.
- Secondly, you can check the originality of the placard content on the web, whether it is unique or copied. Any kind of plagiarism will be a hint of vacation rental scam.
- Always avoid making payments via wired mediums or cash. Credit cards and PayPal are the safest modes of payments in such suspicious cases. Most credit card companies allow you to recover the money you lose to scams.
- Ask for the identity proof (like driving license etc.) of the person you are dealing with. If it is an agent or manager, check whether he/she has the right to sign an agreement on behalf of the owner.
- Moreover, you can also check the existence of the property. Google Maps can also be really helpful to get along with.
- Most importantly, prefer to book vacation rentals through the authorized and reputed websites.
