Scam Advice

[Moira]

Hi,
Unless you are up here in Scotland you may not have heard but there was a case at the weekend of Prostitutes renting apartments in Glasgow to ply their trade. Because of this and with an uneasy feeling regarding a booking I have I decided to check the clients IP address. The visitors have spanish names, their address is Barcelona, although I only found that out via paypal as they didnt give me the full address on the booking form. The person corresponding is female however the email address is a male. She is on facebook so I would have thought she would have had her own email address! When checking the IP address it's Derby, England. They have paid the deposit via Paypal. Should I be concerned. This is my first season so maybe a bit wary.

Moira
www.baronyapartments.com

[Hells Bells]

She may be female, but may not have a Paypal account. Hubby doesn't so uses mine. (He can't register his credit card as I am also a cardholder on the account and have already registered it. Same for our bank account).
There may be several legitimate explanations for the discrepancies. Spanish origin, living in Derby area , moved recently, and bank details are still registered in Spain.
There may of course be several non-legit reasons, and I would be a bit suspicious. As to how you can find out, perhaps others may have some ideas?

[greenbarn]

Would it help to ask the guest for an address? You can point out that they omitted it from the booking form, but that it's a legal requirement in the UK for you to have the home address of all your guests, so please could they send it. Quite where that would leave you if the address matched - or didn't match - the Paypal address I'm not sure, but it might be worth a check!

[Moira]

Thanks, you're probably right, the whole correspondence with this enquirer has been a bit strange which has added to my suspicion. At the end of the day they have paid the deposit so we'll see what happens when the balance is due.