VRBO....it's still happening!!

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Paolo,

If you sites don't give a rapid service to both the owner and the renter do what Alexia and I would do. Vote with your feet - opt out.

Alan
Clexane
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Post by Clexane »

I just got a response from VRBO on the error recieved with my test enquires. They insist that they have had some short term problems and these are now rectified.

Time to retest ...
So you wanted a holiday home in france ...

www.villaemmanuelle.com
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

I sent a test inquiry to myself a couple of days ago through VRBO and it got through fine -- no intermittent delays.

I don't know that it makes any difference, but the problem apparently isn't system-wide...
Brooke
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I have had a reason given for not receiving my test enquiries through vrbo. They say that the IP I have been assigned by my ISP is also popular among Nigerian scammers. So they block all enquiries from that IP. They then go through all the blocked enquiries and release the genuine ones. Except in my case they didn't and don't know why they didn't. They say that other enquiries from a non-blacklisted IP will not be affected.

So perhaps this is what happened to Tansy earlier this year?
Paolo
Lay My Hat
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

How can a scammer be legitimately coming from your IP address? Unless they are physically at your computer, that's not possible. And, it's unlikely that a scammer would spoof your unique IP address.

Perhaps they meant to say that the first three bits of your IP address are popular. But even then, unless your ISP services Nigeria that's not likely to be because the scammers actually e-mail from those IP addresses, more that they use your ISP's open smtp servers without having an account with the ISP. But even in that case, the originating IP address is usually visible in the mail headers, and it's easy enough to check the origin of that and find out whether it's an authorized user.

It sounds like something you should take up with your ISP, but still... I'm not sure that I buy that explanation.
Brooke
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Doh!!! Gobblydegook soup :roll:
It sounds brill- I just haven't a clue what this conversation is about!! :?
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Brooke,

Aren't IPs attributed to more than one individual? Not that I know about this, but if you have a dynamic IP you get a random one from the batch your ISP has each time you log on, which suggests that IPs are not unique. Mine is static by the way.

I'll ask my ISP about this.

(Fraise - ISP = Internet Service Provider, i.e. who you pay to get online, like Wanadoo. IP is a series of numbers that identifies your computer online.)
Paolo
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

IPs are unique internet addresses, and if yours is static (lucky you!), it is completely unique to you. Mine is officially dynamic, but in reality our ISP only changes it about once a year.

Either way, if an ISP actually assigns you an IP, it's because you're using a computer connected directly to their internet connection. So if a scammer was actually using an IP from your ISP (whoa, the acronyms!), that would mean that the scammer was paying for internet service from the ISP.

One of two things is more likely:

1) That the scammers are spoofing IPs, or

2) That your ISP is using an "open" smtp server (a server which just sends mail using the standard protocol), which means that anyone can send e-mail using the server regardless of the IP they send from or the e-mail address they use. Many ISPs do this because it's easiest, but it also makes them targets for scammers and spammers.

It seems unlikely to me that a huge number of scammers would be spoofing the same IP address or IP address family, so the second option seems like it could be the case. In that instance, the ISP needs to be notified so that they can work to fix it. But even if they don't, the IP address of the computer that originated an e-mail using the ISP's mail server should (I believe) be visible in the full message headers. And that IP address should be traceable to Nigeria or wherever the scammer actually is. So the second thing shouldn't be a reason to ban the ISP.

Especially if the ISP is a big company like Wanadoo! A huge number of people use Wanadoo, so if VRBO is banning e-mails from them it seems like it's not such a smart move on their parts.

I should mention, though, that I've never worked for an ISP or anything. So if anyone knows that my information is wrong, please do correct me. :)

Cheers!
Brooke
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