Pay for a rental with a credit card, via PayPal or through a payment transfer option on the rental listing website, which makes it easier to dispute a fraudulent charge.Īnyone who encounters a vacation rental scam should immediately report it to the Florida Attorney General’s Office by filing a complaint online at or by calling 1(866) 9NO-SCAM.A legitimate owner or property manager can likely produce these with little difficulty, while a scammer is unlikely to have access to additional photos and, They use these lists for phishing campaigns and other scams. These days, criminals can get your email from lists on the Dark Web or through other means. You haven’t applied for the job: One of the main signs of a job scam is if someone contacts you out of the blue.
Check to see if there are additional rental listings for the property under another owner’s name 5 telltale signs of a virtual assistant scam.Investigate the property and, if possible, visit the property before signing a contract or sending payment.Do not rely solely on email to contact the owner and be wary of foreign telephone numbers.Find websites that offer a payment portal, where money is held in escrow until the renter arrives at the property with keys in hand.Search for a reputable rental website that offers protection in the event of fraud or offers payment transfer options.Renters should be wary of fake rental properties to ensure they are not being scammed and that family vacations are not ruined.”Ĭonsumers can take steps to avoid falling victim to this scam. A major red flag of this type of scam is if an immediate payment is demanded.Īttorney General Ashley Moody said, “With many families on spring break or planning summer vacations, this type of scam can be more common. This can result in consumers showing up to fake rental properties where the actual residents are not aware that homes are listed or to addresses that are not the properties listed in the advertisements. In a typical phishing scheme, consumers receive an email purportedly from their email. While phishing schemes are not new, con artists continue to invent new ways to trick consumers into handing over sensitive information.
The fake listings, posted on sites such as Craigslist, are either of rental properties that are not actually available for rent or actual vacation listings hijacked by the scammer and the contact information changed. Phishing is a criminal attempt to solicit your sensitive personal information, usually electronically via email. TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Attorney General Ashley Moody today issued a Consumer Alert about an increasingly common vacation rental scam that involves the use of fake online ads posted to deceive consumers.
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