Vacation Rental Scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

Hi, I'm new here, but have been ROFL at your scambaiting! Good going, guys!

One of my British online friends discovered a scam on vacation rental property in Florida. It sounded too good to be true, and he discovered that there is no property tax listing for the address, and the "owner's" address is in Israel. He travels frequently, and he detected the scam when he realized that the view outside one of the bedroom windows in a pic the "owner" sent him was actually a view of Monte Carlo!

I discovered another such property at:

http://www.vacationhomes.com/Beach+Special-27425

It offers a 6 bedroom luxury villa, with an indoor pool PLUS a chef to prepare your meals for $1200-$1400. Rolling Eyes

I mentioned to my friend that I thought this was another scam, and he checked into the phone number listed. The phone number is a $20 UK per minute premium phone line!

I don't know if ALL the vacation rentals on the main website are scams or not. The main website is: http://www.vacationhomes.com/city_search.cfm?l=137

Keep up the good work, guys! Very Happy

I forgot to mention that I'm leery of doing any scambaiting myself, but thought one of you might be willing to take it on!

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:40 pm

BigBertha wrote:

The phone number is a $20 UK per minute premium phone line!

Don't get carried away with that bit of fiction.
There is no such service.
The maximum permitted charge per minute for a premium rate call in the UK is GBP1.50 (USD3.00)

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:48 pm

I just send them a sms with this http://www.gizmosms.com/ lets see if they answer, website seems okay in my eyes

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:59 pm

The website looks legit to me:

Quote:

Registrant:
CarsDirect.com, Inc.
909 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
11th Floor
El Segundo, CA 90245
US

Domain Name: VACATIONHOMES.COM

Administrative Contact:
Knapp, Matthew
InternetBrands.com
909 N Sepulveda Blvd
El Segundo, CA 90245
US
(310) 280-4000 fax: 123 123 1234

Technical Contact:
CarsDirect.com, Inc.
909 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
11th Floor
El Segundo, CA 90245
US
310 280-4000 fax: 123 123 1234

Record expires on 04-Jun-2008.
Record created on 05-Jun-1997.
Database last updated on 20-Mar-2008 11:55:46 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:

DNSCDC.CARSDIRECT.COM 207.212.172.75
DNSLA.CARSDIRECT.COM 12.129.202.53

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

I'm thinking that the main website is OK, but the listing for the 6 bedroom villa is questionable. The ad for the scam villa in North Miami Beach, FL, that had the view of Monte Carlo outside the bedroom window was also for a 6 bedroom villa, plus the named owner of the villa and the name on the address he tracked were nowhere close to being related. Weekly rental of $1,000-$1400 for a luxury villa of that size is just TOO cheap, IMHO.

Anyway, he reported that ad to the website, and they apparently took the ad down right away. But, then this new one popped up.

I'll ask my friend about that premium phone rate. He's pretty knowledgeable, a very legitimate personality (high-profile employee of a legitimate business), and I KNOW that he's not inclined to flights of fancy. Maybe the rate is for calling from another country?

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

Hmmm...I just went back to check the details on that listing, and it just keeps me going back to the main page! Wonder if the main website has locked that particular listing?

Oh, and my friend did report the previous listing of the Florida villa with the view of Monte Carlo outside the bedroom window to the main website. So, maybe the website techs are keeping an eye out for more scams!

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:13 pm

BigBertha wrote:

I'll ask my friend about that premium phone rate. He's pretty knowledgeable,

Ask him.
Also tell him that he's incorrect.
Talk of charges in excess of GBP1.50 (USD3.00) per minute is a perpetual myth.

If he insists you can tell him that you have it on expert authority that he is not as knowledgeable as either he or you think. Wink

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 4

I kind of figured that the $20/minute rate was something like the 1-900 numbers in the States, where the person with the phone number can charge whatever they want per minute. Do y'all not have anything like that in GB? He won't be online until late tonight, probably, so I'll ask him to clarify then.

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:54 pm

Yes, similar, but as I have previously stated; Up to a maximum charge of GBP1.50 per minute.

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:05 pm

1.50 GBP = 2.97755 USD moderate, but still not nice.
I have no answer yet from that number, maybe we're wrong here and might have to share the chef and the pool.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:13 pm

For the benefit of Big Bertha and the 'knowledgeable friend', prompted by a post in an unrelated thread, I post the following link;

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/mobile.asp