Might have been a scam
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:52 pm
Hi all this one might have been a scam, might not have been, but I erred towards caution:
Last minute HA enquiry for same day arrival for four nights, the only four we had unbooked in the calendar for months. We don't take automatic same day bookings so they emailed to ask if it was possible as they were coming to the area that day, if not they'd be happy to arrive tomorrow, and gave me a UK mobile number to call. Grammar fine, all seemed okay (only anomaly was the email was addressed to 'Dear Sir / Madame' which would usually say scam but everything else including the wording and the layout seemed entirely normal so thought maybe they were just being formal/polite...)
Tried number, 'not possible to connect call'. Checked email address which was apparently a small island in the Pacific. Looked at HA profile which showed they'd reviewed only one property, in the US two days before. Perfectly nice and well written review. Called HA who confirmed this person had not booked that property through them and only record they have is they booked another property two years before which was cancelled by the owner for non-payment.
All that rang alarm bells, and suddenly them happening to be in the area for four nights without accommodation for the only four nights we had available seemed a bit suss. Told them we weren't available.
As I say, could have been fine, but I didn't want to spend my bank holiday weekend worrying!! Int to see what others would have thought / done?
Last minute HA enquiry for same day arrival for four nights, the only four we had unbooked in the calendar for months. We don't take automatic same day bookings so they emailed to ask if it was possible as they were coming to the area that day, if not they'd be happy to arrive tomorrow, and gave me a UK mobile number to call. Grammar fine, all seemed okay (only anomaly was the email was addressed to 'Dear Sir / Madame' which would usually say scam but everything else including the wording and the layout seemed entirely normal so thought maybe they were just being formal/polite...)
Tried number, 'not possible to connect call'. Checked email address which was apparently a small island in the Pacific. Looked at HA profile which showed they'd reviewed only one property, in the US two days before. Perfectly nice and well written review. Called HA who confirmed this person had not booked that property through them and only record they have is they booked another property two years before which was cancelled by the owner for non-payment.
All that rang alarm bells, and suddenly them happening to be in the area for four nights without accommodation for the only four nights we had available seemed a bit suss. Told them we weren't available.
As I say, could have been fine, but I didn't want to spend my bank holiday weekend worrying!! Int to see what others would have thought / done?