More Vacation Scams

Watch For Scams is dedicated to helping you avoid becoming a victim of fraud.

If you like this ezine, do a friend a big favor and forward this to them. If a friend forwarded this to you, and if you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting the link below:

Subscribe Here

More Vacation Scams

Anything that has to do with travel on the Internet you have to be really careful to make sure you’re really dealing with who you think you’re dealing with. This is because scammers can take a site and make it look like Orbitz or Expedia or Delta Air Lines or Carnival Cruise lines or whatever.

One of the most common scams right now involves fake vacation rental listings that offer up other people’s homes, and then pocket your cash.

It’s either the house doesn’t exist, or the people who actually own it and live there were not planning to rent it out. And so, somebody shows up at their place on a Saturday afternoon and says ‘OK, we’re here to move in for the next week’ and it’s ‘what the heck are you talking about?’ and it happens more frequently than you would think.

Tips to avoid vacation scams include:

1. Avoid sellers on travel platforms who ask you to leave that platform to arrange payment.

2. Beware of any seller who doesn’t take credit cards.

3. Beware of a seller who charges large upfront fees, especially in the form of wire transfers, gift cards, or cryptocurrency.

Those forms of payment are like sending cash — once you send it, you have no way to get it back.

The biggest red flag is any deal that looks too good to be true.

Remember - always watch for scams!