MARCO ISLAND
The Marco Island Police Department is investigating two separate reports of vacation property rental scams.
Two completely different reports, but a lot of the information is similar. Someone found a property online, sent money ranging from $800 to almost $3,000, and once they showed up at the property, they found out they had been scammed.
It is a scam that isn’t hard to fall for. You want a nice vacation, so you hop online to find a place to rent.
Dina Johnson, a realtor in Marco Island, said, “sometimes people are just excited, and they just don’t really think about how easy it is in this day and age to scam people.”
The property you think you’re renting may not be real, or if it is, the person you’re renting it from isn’t.
“If it looks too good to be true, you better take a hard look and make sure you’re dealing with the owner,” said Detective Sergent Mark Huffor with the Marco Island Police Department.
Johnson said she’s heard of people falling victim to the rental scam. “When he got here, it turned out to be a scam. He had sent like a $4,000 deposit and the person actually didn’t own the property.”
Detective Sergeant Huffor said they’ve identified four vacation rental scams in a week. “I’ll look online and look to see if there’s any suspicious rental listings and try to contact the owner. I contacted the owners, who confirmed that they did not rent…
