Lay My Hat

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