Vacation Rental Scams? Believe It!

Vacation rental scams are one of the newer scams to make the rounds, and are picking up a lot of speed.

Vacation Rental Scams can happen whether you rent to individuals or rent yourself a vacation home.

Vacation Rental Scams Repetitive Actions;

• Avoid renters that insist on giving you only their email address.

• The whole point of the renter doing this is to get you to answer them via YOUR email, which now gives them your email address.

• A legitimate renter won’t have a problem giving you access to all the pertinent information you need.

• I always do a background check, credit check and check references for anyone I rent to.

• Always use a contract and have everything in writing, including any “special” agreements between the two parties.

• Be very leery of anyone wanting to use a postal money order or cashiers check, because the scammer will ask for cash back or a refund directly after paying you.

  This is a scam! Money orders and cashier checks can be faked and, if this is the case, then you are out all that money and you are still held liable as far as the bank is concerned.

• Never give out your social security number, bank account numbers, or any other personal or financial information; especially over the phone. This is a perfect set up for identity theft scams.

So many of these vacation scams and other scams such as nigerian scams and phone scams are important to learn about, and will give you more information on how these scams work.

It is reported and common knowledge that many identity theft scams of all kinds seem to come from Nigeria, UK and other countries outside of the U.S.

Online Vacation Rental Scams

The most common way for people to find a vacation rental home is now online. This is a quick and easy way to find a perfect rental home at a good price, all you have to do is click a button, and it’s all yours.

The catch is, you have to put up a deposit…

...A Very Large Deposit!

These identity theft scams have a couple of scenarios. After you put up your hefty deposit, you travel to your vacation spot and find out the house isn’t even reality; it never existed.

You are now in an unfamiliar place, have no place to stay; and, to top off this whole ugly scenario, you are out all of your deposit money.

Variation Of Vacation Rental Scams

• Another variation of this scam works the same in the way you find your vacation spot; but, the difference being, there is nothing but a run down, ugly place that you wouldn’t let your animals stay in.

• Sometimes the place is there, but doesn’t look like the picture that was posted online. In come cases, you end up putting a deposit down on a vacant lot!

• Fake landlord rental scams work much the same way. You find a place at what you think is a really good price, put down a large deposit; and the day you pack up your things and arrive at your new house, you find the landlord has rented the same house to 15 other prospective occupants.

The Scam To The Above Vacation Rental Is…

• Just a few weeks before the house showed up in the ads, the phony landlord had actually rented the house for himself.

• Now the phony landlord has everyone’s deposit and is nowhere to be found…

...That’s right! He Was Gone!

Identity theft scams like this also include home equity fraud.

• Free vacations also work similarly. Hardly anyone gives something for nothing! There is usually a catch. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is!

Sadly, I have found over the years that phrase to be true 99.9% of the time.

• Be sure to use a reputable real estate agent or rental company when you rent your vacation property.

• Make sure you verify the location and condition of the property so you don’t get scammed.

• Before you give your deposit or credit card information, always use the Better Business Bureau at bbb.org to make sure the company is legitimate.

  Vacation rental scams and identity theft scams run the gamut from time share vacation package scams, vacation discount card scams, timeshare scams, real estate scams and, making the news in my area in a major way, have been home renovation scams, just to name a few.

  
  
  
  
  
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