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  • Geebo 8:00 am on May 30, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , short-term rental,   

    Vacation scams are on their way 

    Vacation scams are on their way

    By Greg Collier

    With Memorial Day weekend behind us, many of use will be looking to book our summer vacations. Unfortunately, dream vacations can often turn to nightmares thanks to scammers. The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about various scams vacation-goers may encounter if they’re not careful.

    One of the more common scams that could ruin a vacation is the rental scam. It works in the same way as a long-term rental scam works. Scammers will list properties online for short-term rental they don’t actually own. More often than not, the listing is copied from a legitimate listing, although the scammers are advertising the rental at below-market prices. Research is key when looking to rent a home for your vacation. Do a web search of the property’s address, and you might find multiple listings online that show different owners, different rental agencies, and different prices. If the listing you found is the one with the lowest price, there is a very good chance that is the scam listing.

    If you decide to go down the motel/hotel route, be wary of calls to your room from the front desk. A scam that has become popular over the last few years is when scammers call your room. They’ll call late at night while posing as the front desk. The caller will say your credit card didn’t go through and will ask for your credit card information again. The scammers are hoping that you’ll give them your credit card information instead of going down to the front desk. If you didn’t use a credit card, you’ll know you’re being scammed. If you did book your room with a credit card, always go to the front desk if there is a supposed problem with it.

    Lastly, you may want to be careful when using the wifi at your lodgings. Using public wifi in general can open you up to a number of security risks, such as exposing your financial information. While travelling, think about purchasing a plan with a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs can block your information from being seen on public wifi. However, when choosing a VPN, always go with a paid plan, as free VPNs are often just a disguise for more security risks.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on March 3, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , short-term rental   

    Scammers try to sell Airbnb homes 

    Scammers try to sell Airbnb homes

    By Greg Collier

    Some say there are numerous problems with short-term rental services like Airbnb. For example, some critics say the homes could be put to better use as family homes than short-term rentals. Especially while the country is in a housing crisis. Others say that Airbnb renters can be disruptive and destructive to residential neighborhoods. There’s also the problem of Airbnb hosts who rent out properties that are either below living standards or are misrepresented in the listing. Now, Airbnb can add one more problem to the list.

    According to a report out of Portland, Oregon, Airbnb hosts have come across a new scam that could put their rental property in jeopardy. Multiple hosts have reported renting their units out to renters who turn out to be scammers. The scammers then pose as real estate agents and hold showings or open houses of the rental property. The properties are being listed on a real estate website that only deals with sales by the homeowners. Scammers are listing the homes at ridiculously low prices and are offering to sell them for cash in hand to only first-time homebuyers.

    One Airbnb host was able to record a scammer showing the property to first-time buyers through a security camera. Where the camera was installed in the Airbnb is unknown.

    If you’re an Airbnb host, it’s recommended you routinely check to make sure the property isn’t being listed for sale on sites like Zillow, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace.

    If you’re a first-time homebuyer, try to avoid listings that are well below market value. Also, do plenty of research on the property first before making any payments. While paying for a home in full is the dream of every homeowner, finding a cheap home in good condition is more the exception than the rule. And the odds that you found the exception are very low.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 19, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , short-term rental   

    Airbnb scam sends strangers to your door 

    Airbnb scam sends strangers to your door

    By Greg Collier

    Typically, in any kind of rental scam, the scammers will copy a legitimate real estate listing before posting their scam copy online. If the home is actually for sale, scammers will list it as being for rent. They’ll do this in order to collect deposits and rent from unsuspecting victims. But, what can you do if the home you live in and own is being used in a rental scam? One woman from Detroit recently found out.

    The woman owns her own home in the Motor City, but recently, strangers started showing up at her door looking for a way in. The first time this happened, she asked the people on her porch what they were doing there through her home security camera. The people said they had rented the property off short-term rental platform Airbnb.

    This has happened to the woman multiple times, with disappointed vacationers showing up to her home, only to be told the property isn’t for rent. As we said, typically scammers use properties that have been listed online before. According to the homeowner, this property has never been listed. So, it seems like scammers may be picking homes either at random or by location to list on Airbnb.

    However, this scam does not seem very practical in terms of profit for the scammer. Airbnb processes the payments between renter and host. So, if a scam like this is detected, Airbnb can reverse the payment. They’ve even said that in this particular instance, the scammer did not get paid. It’s entirely possible that this could have been a scammer testing the Airbnb process for possible vulnerabilities.

    This doesn’t change the fact that people expecting to rent a vacation spot had to be turned away from someone’s home. It only takes one person who refuses to believe they’ve been scammed to turn this into a volatile situation.

    If people show up at your home thinking they’ve scored a vacation rental, contact the platform, in this case Airbnb, immediately to have the listing removed. If you’re a person looking for a short-term rental on platforms like Airbnb, research the host before committing. Phony hosts will often use images stolen off the internet in their profiles. A reverse image search goes a long way in weeding out scam hosts.

     

  • Geebo 9:02 am on December 29, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: campsite, , , , , , , , short-term rental,   

    You can be scammed at any vacation lodging 

    You can be scammed at any vacation lodging

    By Greg Collier

    Currently, we’re still in the middle of the Christmas vacation season. We hope our readers’ vacation plans went off without a hitch. Hopefully, you didn’t have to experience the massive flight cancellations that took place over the holiday weekend. We also hope your vacation lodging was also to your liking.

    The reason we brought up lodging specifically it that there have been a coupe of stories in the news about people being scammed out of their lodging choices. For example, vacationers to Marco Island, Florida, showed up to what they thought were vacation homes that they rented, only to find out they were rented to someone else. It seems that the victim in these cases paid money to scammers who listed the vacation rentals online but didn’t actually own the properties they claimed to rent. This is just a variation of the rental scam where people think they’re renting a home they found on craigslist when the home is either actually for sale or being rented by a real estate agency instead of some guy from craigslist.

    So instead of getting a rental home, you decide to go camping. There’s no way you can be scammed camping, right? It turns out you can, The state of Indiana is warning campers about third-parties who are claiming to rent out campsites at state parks and forests. The scammers collect the money, but when the campers get to the site they thought they paid for, the site has actually been rented to someone else. In the Hoosier State, campers can only reserve campsites in the state parks through the state itself. Check to see if the state you’re going camping in has the same rules.

    Hotels and short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have their own set of scams to worry about. You can read more about those here and here.

    If you chose to stay home for the holidays this year, you may have made the safest choice of all.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 20, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , short-term rental, , ,   

    Short-term renters threatened with violence 

    Short-term renters threatened with violence

    By Greg Collier

    If you use a short-term rental service like Airbnb or VRBO, as a renter, there are many pitfalls you have to be aware of. Usually, if a renter had to look out for anyone, it was usually the host they had to be wary of. Previously, we’ve seen instances where the accommodations weren’t exactly what the host had promised, with some resembling something closer to prison conditions than a vacation rental. There have also been instances of hosts renting out properties that they didn’t even own. These scammers would just take the renter’s money and leave them stranded after the renter’s traveled to what they thought was going to be a fun trip. Now, short-term renters have another danger to look out for.

    In Northern California, a group of vacationers from Kansas rented out a home off of VRBO for a trip to wine country. It appears that at least one of the neighbors wanted to let the vacationers know that they weren’t welcome there. One morning, they woke up to find the tires on their van had been slashed, and threatening graffiti was left on the rental home. Part of the message said, “Leave this place or else.”

    The residents of the neighborhood have had a problem with this particular rental for some time now. According to them, the rental has repeatedly been a party house where renters have not only disturbed the neighborhood with noise, but have also repeatedly strewn garbage around the neighborhood. It also turns out that the hosts did not allegedly have the proper permit from the county to use their home as a short-term rental, but we’re renting it out anyway. The permit had been denied after many in the community opposed it.

    The vacationers were just innocent bystanders caught up in a feud between neighbors. With more and more communities pushing back against short-term rentals, this could unfortunately become more common.

     

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