After contending with soaring plane fares, crowded airports and any lingering COVID fears, the last thing you need is to arrive at your dreamy vacation rental only to find another family occupying it.
Scammers are in summer mode now, as one Albuquerque woman learned recently from a potential customer who spotted her short-term rental home on Craigslist.
The thing is, the owner doesn’t advertise on Craigslist; instead, she lists the Downtown-area rental on VRBO, or “Vacation Rentals by Owner.” It’s similar to Airbnb, but focuses on single-family homes rather than shared spaces.
A thief had stolen interior and exterior shots of the property from the VRBO site, along with details about the home, and posted everything on Craigslist. The listing included the name of the real owner, but the scammer claimed the owner had just sold the property to him and he was now in charge.
The potential customer was lured in by the pretty photos, but he became suspicious when the thief wanted him to send a deposit by wire to hold the reservation. When you wire money to someone, there is no way to get it back, even if you have been ripped off.
Short-term rental sites like VRBO and Airbnb require payments through their platforms and not through outside channels.
The wise customer tracked down the real owner and called her, informing her about the unauthorized Craigslist posting.
In this case, the customer thwarted the thievery and lost no money, but plenty of others have….
