Surprising advice from OD

[aussiefrog]

Your responses are all very interesting. I'm a dunderhead with IT but OD blocking enquiries doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Rosie, it's also interesting to see that your enquiries and bookings are down by the same amount. Just have to hope that things pick up after Christmas, otherwise I'm going to have to advertise somewhere else. I definitely will not go back to HL or HA, will have to give some of the smaller sites a go and see what happens.

[kevsboredagain]

OD blocking enquiries doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Perhaps I'm missing something but after 10 scam emails, you complained to OD but you wouldn't want them to be blocked. What action would you prefer OD to take to prevent these enquiries?

I'm also wondering, does anyone here ever report malicious emails? It would appear I'm alone in thinking that reporting them so a listing site can block further attempts from the same source.

[e-richard]

Your responses are all very interesting. I'm a dunderhead with IT but OD blocking enquiries doesn't seem to be a good idea.

I'm sorry if I was party to confusing you, but interestingly kevsboredagain and I do agree on this. We just have two totally separate arguments:

1. We do not think that OD blocking enquiries is a good idea when it is done by a computer program automatically.
2. We do think that any site has a duty of responsibility to follow up when humans report to humans that any particular email address is a scam, and that that address can and should then be blocked.

Does this clarify or make it worse?

[aussiefrog]

Your responses are all very interesting. I'm a dunderhead with IT but OD blocking enquiries doesn't seem to be a good idea.

I'm sorry if I was party to confusing you, but interestingly kevsboredagain and I do agree on this. We just have two totally separate arguments:

1. We do not think that OD blocking enquiries is a good idea when it is done by a computer program automatically.
2. We do think that any site has a duty of responsibility to follow up when humans report to humans that any particular email address is a scam, and that that address can and should then be blocked.

Does this clarify or make it worse?

Thanks, e-Richard, you have clarified this, it now makes sense to me that OD block email addresses after a report that it is sending out spam. But as these scammers just go on creating new email addresses, could they ever keep up!

And dunderhead that I am, this may be a silly question, but do you think that OD had left a 'door' open in their anti spam protection that allowed all of this to start? Repeating myself again, I've been with Chez Nous forever and never had a single scam enquiry, so it seems (to me anyway) that they are doing something right.

[tavi]

For the record, I've been with OD and Mediahols for 4 years and to my recollection have never had a scam email via them. Of course I can well understand how annoying it is to have up to 10 in one day.

Nevertheless, as I've said above I'd be very worried about them doing a blanket block on enquiries in MY account on the basis of a reported scam...too much room for error on their part. I prefer to take my own risks.

There are other security steps they could take which they still haven't.

The scammers must lurve that little trick where your text is automatically repeated into the enquiry form of every property you visit - so all you have to do is press send.....imagine how many scam enquiries they can send in a few minutes' work?

[kevsboredagain]

But as these scammers just go on creating new email addresses, could they ever keep up!

And dunderhead that I am, this may be a silly question, but do you think that OD had left a 'door' open in their anti spam protection that allowed all of this to start? Repeating myself again, I've been with Chez Nous forever and never had a single scam enquiry, so it seems (to me anyway) that they are doing something right.

No listing site can ever stop them but if they get blocked from one email address after a few reports, it should drastically reduce the total number of people that receive. Of course they simply start again with a new email address.

I don't think OD are an easy target for any real fault of their own, although perhaps their lack of apparent concern and action on their behalf has not helped the issue . They have been highlighted in the media as a easy target and are currently the top choice for scammers due to the direct contact with the owners, as well as the large volume of potential targets.

[aussiefrog]

For the record, I've been with OD and Mediahols for 4 years and to my recollection have never had a scam email via them. Of course I can well understand how annoying it is to have up to 10 in one day.

Nevertheless, as I've said above I'd be very worried about them doing a blanket block on enquiries in MY account on the basis of a reported scam...too much room for error on their part. I prefer to take my own risks.

There are other security steps they could take which they still haven't.

The scammers must lurve that little trick where your text is automatically repeated into the enquiry form of every property you visit - so all you have to do is press send.....imagine how many scam enquiries they can send in a few minutes' work?

They do seem to be almost exclusively targeting French properties so maybe the Algarve is not on their hit list (yet.... ).

Good point about the auto text repeated in x amount of enquiries, I've never liked that put in your shopping basket idea, way too easy for window shoppers to send out multiple enquiries to properties they're not really that interested in.

[e-richard]

.. I've never liked that put in your shopping basket idea, way too easy for window shoppers to send out multiple enquiries to properties they're not really that interested in.

I know this sounds like we're heading off topic, but that sort of feature is there for the benefit of the travellers SIMPLY BECAUSE there are so many owners who just cannot be bothered to reply, so its the only way, as a traveller, to ensure you do get some response to your enquiries.
(They probably are not the same owners who post on LMH !)

The general point I'm trying to make is that Tavi, for example is not a typical OD subscriber who just shoves up an ad, and cannot be @rsed to track all enquiries and check all potential scams. Sadly these owners are large in number.

I do have a lot of sympathy for the listing site developers who have to cope with all the different types of rental owners and managers with their huge variance in pricing schemes, enquiry management schemes, diligence and indeed intelligence !