Scam Warning

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
PeeJay
Posts: 93
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:43 pm
Location: Los Cristianos, Tenerife

Scam Warning

Post by PeeJay »

Recieved this today
Important message for all our advertisers

This is a general reminder about "scam" e-mail messages. We have a system in place for screening out scam e-mails. However, occasionally some do get through and we would like to ask you to be wary of e-mail enquiries which do not sound quite right. The following two addresses are those of scammers who did manage to by-pass our system last week. If you have received an e-mail from either of these people, please be aware that they are not genuine enquiries.

xxxxx @yahoo.com
xxxxx @yahoo.com

Scams often follow the same pattern, the enquirer will suggest that they send you a large amount of money by cheque or bankers draft, and that you should take out your rental charges and refund the difference to them. They often ask for your "terms of rent" and "method of payment" in their first e-mail. The following are two examples, one from a first enquiry e-mail and the second from a follow up e-mail:

HI,
I SAW YOUR AD PLACED ON OWNERS DIRECT AND WILL LIKE TO BOOK FOR MY FAMILY FOR OUR VACATION FROM 25 MARCH(1 WEEK),LET ME KNOW THE TERMS OF RENT AND AGREEMENTS INVOLVED AND ALSO METHOD OF PAYMENT AND THE CURRENCY IN WHICH YOU ACCEPT PAYMENT.DO I PAY IN ADVANCE? WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU.

Hello
Thanks for the response. I am located in Switzerland.The payments will be made out to you through a bank draft payable in euro,as there is a debtor of mine who i can instruct to make-out the payments to you right-away in order to avoid delay,the money is a refund for a cancelled order I placed with him . I will want you to make enquiry at your bank how long it will take for such bank draft to get cashed.I will also want you to provide me with the following payments information as follows; Name the cheque should be made payable to:
Address of the recipient:
Phone no:
Thanks while waiting for your response.

If you ever receive an e-mail which you are unsure about, please do not hesitate to ask our advice. It may not be possible for us to be 100% sure but, having seen hundreds of these things, we can often spot the tell tale phrases. In the meantime, we will continue to screen your messages for scams - since introducing the system we have caught and deleted large numbers of them.

Best wishes,
Marie Goddard.
Owners Direct

EDIT: Name and e-mail address removed by moderator; we wouldn't want Paolo to be charged with slander for naming names on this forum!
PeeJay
Posts: 93
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:43 pm
Location: Los Cristianos, Tenerife

Post by PeeJay »

Thats fair enough moderator.

but if anyone wants the addresses (not names) PM me.

fore warned is fore armed
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Thomas BC
Posts: 337
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:45 pm
Location: Normandy (76)
Contact:

Post by Thomas BC »

I got one of these emails from the xx@yahoo addresses. Although I was almost certain it was a scam I sent back a very cagey response - but my reply was bounced back by yahoo. That was a bit weird.

Also, I use paypal and today I received what must surely be a scam email - supposedly from Paypal.fr. It refers to my ebay account - and I do not have an ebay account! The email directs me to a very convincing mock up of a 'Paypal' site and asks for accunt details etc.

I think Soodyer (rightly) said something like isnt the internet a wnderful place - it can also be quite dangerous!!
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vrooje
Posts: 3202
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:48 am
Location: Burgundy, France

Post by vrooje »

Oh my gosh -- I got that too! The Paypal.fr e-mail about eBay, I mean.

I just deleted it; I have my language set to English on the PayPal.fr site, so any official messages I get from them are en anglais, not in French! I never thought that would be useful for detecting spoof e-mails, though!
Brooke
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