Hargis Theresa - another from OD (yawn)

[aussiefrog]

These are becoming very tiresome, except this one doesn't have the command of English that some of her colleagues have:

"Hi, Is this property free on the dates above please? Is there restaurants, shops to walking distance? Many thanks"

Questions which of course are all answered in my ad. She has filled in all the fields and given a mobile number.

[Casscat]

I think we should all be sending every single one of these to spoof@homeaway.com. Maybe they'll get the message that their sites are rife with shysters, scammers, fraudsters and lowlifes. We know that these are phishing attempts because we can smell them from a distance of several miles, but why not forward them anyway? If every owner across the entire HA empire did so they'd be so inundated they might actually develop a strategy for dealing with this tidal wave of garbage.

[Zingara]

I do....I don't even answer them now.

I have been told that there will be an option on the new OD dashboard to mark as spam, thus not reply, and not affect response rate.

[KathyG]

I reply to the "click on this attachment" type with "Do you seriously think I'll be taken in by that?" or some such comment.

[Casscat]

Most advertisers just ignore them is my point. If we all reported them then OD/HA/HL/Whoever would have more appreciation of the scale of the problem.

[aussiefrog]

Most advertisers just ignore them is my point. If we all reported them then OD/HA/HL/Whoever would have more appreciation of the scale of the problem.

Agree,Casscat, everyone should forward them. I forward every one I receive to OD/HA, and believe me, there have been loads.

[newtimber]

I'm always reticent about forwarding spam emails just in case OD assume that I have clicked on links - and then thinking that my account has been compromised tell my guests that I've been hacked etc.
I think that large organisations assume their customers are idiots until proven otherwise.

[Gazpacho]

I forward all of mine to the spoof email address. But I've always wondered if they disappear into the digital equivalent of the office wastebin! Certainly if everyone did then they might take some notice.

[Gettingthere]

I reply to the "click on this attachment" type with "Do you seriously think I'll be taken in by that?" or some such comment.

I don't think this is a good tactic - however satisfying it may be!
1. it tells them that you do exist and do respond to enquiries, so may encourage them to be more clever next time
2. Part of what they are after is your email address (knowing that this may be part of your log-in details) and hope that your password is nice and easy to guess (which of course it isn't is it?)

[kevsboredagain]

So what was the scam?

[joddle]

So what was the scam?

My thoughts as well - at this point I can't see why you think this is a scam - or is there more in the applicaiton then you are saying here? If so it would be helpful to see the bits that convince you that this is a scam. I get loads of people asking things that are already in the ad but most turn out to be genuine and book and pay.