| John
Owens lets out his house in Pyrénées-Orientales. On two occasions
he has received suspicious enquiries by email. Each time the
sender wanted to send John a sum of money far above the cost
of the rental. 'On the first occasion the sender claimed he
had a client who owed him ten thousand pounds', says John. 'He
said he would arrange for this amount to be sent and asked if
I could return the difference in cash'. John refused to accept
the booking. 'On the second occasion the sender claimed the
excess money he was sending would cover the air fare, so I suggested
he contact a booking agent who could book a flight and house
rental using the entire amount'. |
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Both
requests were made for out-of-season bookings, which made them
attractive at first glance.' The senders also asked for
non-standard lengths of stay so we built up a dialogue on
email'. says John.
Philip
Suter advises gîte owners to beware of the following types of
email:
- Enquiries
that seem too good to be true.
- Emails
that make it clear that the enquirer has not actually
looked at your property details.
- Offers
whereby the applicant is an 'agent' saying he has a
professor coming to your country for a conference.
Further
information for gîte owners can be found at www.euro-rentavilla.com/rental_scams_in_holiday
home_lettings.htm
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