By Denise Groene Better Business Bureau
The season for travel fun has arrived and millions of Americans will be enjoying vacation rentals – except the ones that experience vacation rip-offs instead. A Better Business Bureau (BBB) study in 2019 found that 43% of those who searched online encountered fake property listings. More than 5 million people lost money to such scams. It is reasonable to assume that with the easing of the pandemic, as so many feel freer to travel, vacation rentals will be highly sought after. Here is BBB’s advice for those who want to keep their getaways safe from bad actors and their vacation rental schemes.
Easy to fake
Online fakery is child’s play for crooks trying to get your vacation dollars. They hijack property listings from one site, change the contact information and post it on another one. Sometimes they don’t even bother to change the name of the original ad’s contact. Other scammers just make up a fake ad entirely, stealing photos from other online sites and using them in the phony ad.
Scammers know they have one great advantage over you when you are looking for a vacation rental. That advantage is distance. After all, it’s a getaway – meaning the rental is away from your home. You can’t easily drive that distance for a quick check up on the property. Unfortunately, many don’t even take advantage of Google Maps Street View to see if it’s real.
Warning signs
A little wariness goes a long way…
