“We flew in from London with a slight delay. The transfer, which was included in the booking we had made on a rentals website which offers lovely properties all over the world, was not there. I just assumed because we were late the driver had taken a break and would return after checking our final arrival time. But time began to tick away and I started to fear the worst. We had been scammed,” he told the Bulletin at the time.
“I could not raise anyone from the contact numbers we had, so we jumped into two taxis and headed out to the finca we had rented in S’Esgleieta. We arrived at the property, knocked on the door and the German owner, Klaus, appeared. We told him that we were the tenants for the next week only to be informed that he had no idea what we were talking about, that he does not rent out his property.
“We showed him the website we had booked with on our phones and his property with a selection of images of the exteriors and interior of his house. He was astonished, he couldn’t believe it, nor could we. Fortunately, he could see our predicament and distress. We knew we were in Mallorca but that was about it - and had nowhere to stay - we had just lost the best part of 5,000 pounds.
“It was now about 9pm and, rather like the Count of Monte Cristo, Klaus invited us in to stay the night. Dinner was provided, plus a few glasses of wine, accommodation for the night and even breakfast while we tried to get ourselves together and figure out what to do. Our seven-year-old thought it was all part of the holiday, a big fun adventure, but I did my best to explain to him that it was not and that it was in fact a total nightmare situation.
“A lot of friends on Facebook have been very kind and offered to help but that is not the point and this is why one of my first calls was to you at the newspaper. We can’t be the only people to have been conned by this website and it needs to be publicised. The website looks so professional. Like I said, thousands of properties all over the world, but it’s just so easy to fall into the trap and I don’t want families going through what we are having to deal with right now.”
They eventually found another villa on top of a hill but with no heating, no wifi and the cooker does not work. Angus may be considered the “world’s leading chocolate taster”, but he was been left with a bitter sweet taste in his mouth, along with rest of his family.
An ABTA spokesperson told the Bulletin at the time: “ABTA sees at first-hand the damage caused by travel fraudsters after customers find out their much anticipated holiday or trip to visit loved ones may not actually exist.
"This is why we work with City of London Police and Get Safe Online on our travel fraud advice and awareness campaign. The cost to victims is not just financial; this crime causes very real disappointment and emotional distress. Fraudsters often target destinations and times of year when demand is high and availability limited when they know people will be looking for good deals. This can then make it very difficult and expensive to obtain a legitimate replacement booking once the fraud has been revealed.”
Holiday Scams: Don’t Get Caught Out airs tonight on Channel 5.
4 comments
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If you see a villa advertised as a holiday rental on a lesser known website and it includes a photograph that looks to good to be true then it is wise to use the "search web for image" facility on your computer before going any further, because this will bring up other websites where this photograph is featured. On BBC TV's "Rip Off Britain - Holidays" there was a story in which someone thought they were booking a villa holiday in Mexico but the use of this facility indicated that the same picture was also on an estate agent's website, as it was actually a villa for sale on Lanzarote.
First of all, ask for their 'Licence to rent' number, that can then be checked. I have a villa on Vrbo but also have my own website on which I can show facilities which are available "round and about," "how to get there" and links to car hire, taxis, bike hire, boat hire, golf etc.
A sad story. What would be helpful is if someone could advise would-be holidaymakers/villa renters how they can identify the authentic from the scammer. Is there a way? Perhaps something that the authentic operator offers that the scammers can't? Often when I want to buy something or use a service that I don't know and that is only available on-line I type "is XYZ a scam?" into Google search and see what comes up. I have saved myself hundreds by doing this, reading the bad experiences of others and deleting the intended purchases. I recommend it.
I didn't find any mention of the specific scam site in this article, but... It always amazes me when people book through obscure websites like "Joe's most excellent villas". There's really no reason for it. There's plenty of respectable platforms for this, such as booking, Airbnb, vrbo, etc. You might argue that people get scammed on those too, but at the very least, you have a legitimately operating responsible party to demand reparations from. Airbnb for example, will always give your money back AND find you another place to stay in the unlikely event you get scammed. And their catalogue of holiday lets, villas, apartments etc., is the world's largest. Booking.com, VRBO and others are similar, but all are legally obliged to get you a solution. They're legitimate businesses with a reputation to protect. Be very wary of obscure, nobody's-ever-heard -of websites, unless you can verify they really exist, and you can find good reviews and references outside their own website. Even then, never pay by bank transfer. If it sounds too good to be true...