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Fake offers on booking sites: How to protect yourself against fraud with the holiday home

2023-02-24T19:08:59.872Z


The accommodation for the vacation is booked and paid for - but on site it turns out: the property doesn't even exist. Such cases of fraud could increase this year, warns the responsible association. What to do?


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Unsuccessful holiday: The booked holiday home does not exist - where is the nearest accommodation?

Photo:

Peter Finch/Getty Images

The Germans have a desire to travel, as indicated by current surveys and booking figures.

At the same time, interest in accommodation where holidaymakers can self-cater has increased during the pandemic.

But caution is advised when booking private holiday homes and apartments.

On the one hand, there is no control over quality unless they are certified and checked accordingly - and in the worst case, the object advertised on the Internet does not exist at all.

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Anyone who books a holiday home phantom, pays for it and travels to the address given with happy anticipation ultimately wakes up in a holiday nightmare.

Then the money is gone - and you have to look for a new place to live on the spot.

What can you do to prevent this from happening, how can you spot scammers and how do you book securely?

Answers to the most important questions.

How is vacation rentals cheated?

At first glance, the website looks legitimate.

High-resolution images of dream holiday homes and a search mask, as you know it from booking portals: find the location, desired arrival and departure date, number of guests and rooms.

There is an impressive selection of holiday properties, an imprint, a picture of the supposed owner, contact details, seal.

It looks really serious, even if you click through a little further.

But the sites with names like “ferienhaus-profis.com” and “breitkamp.com” are fakes, which the Association of German Holiday Home Agencies (VDFA) had already warned about in mid-January.

These and other portals that look the same are still online.

Anyone who takes a look begins to understand how perfidious and professional holiday home fraud can be.

How quickly do you get caught by scammers?

The VDFA estimates the damage that holidaymakers have already suffered with holiday home fraud to be in the “double-digit millions”.

"Aggrieved parties keep calling," says VDFA Managing Director Monika Kowalewski.

They fell for bogus sites and their supposedly professional paintwork, paid thousands of euros - and ended up without accommodation and without the money they paid.

The VDFA warns that in 2023 there will be more fraud sites on the Internet than ever before.

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The German Holiday Home Association (DFV) assesses the situation in a more differentiated way: In the member portals of the DFV, the cases of fraud have decreased in the recent past, while they tend to increase on private landlord websites, which are often fake.

"Unfortunately, fraud this way is far too easy and still too often successful," says DFV chairman Göran Holst. "A professional-looking site can be created relatively easily with construction kits."

How do I recognize fake offers?

In order not to be taken in by holiday home scammers, industry associations and consumer protection groups provide tips for booking:

  • Suspicious bargain


    If the holiday home is extremely cheap, the alarm bells should ring.

    This is typical for fake offers, warns the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer advice center.

    The advice: compare the offer with others in the area.

    This gives information about whether the

    price

    can be realistic.

  • Who is behind this?


    If the website does not have

    an imprint

    , the following applies: hands off!

    But even a supposedly reliable imprint with contact address, tax number and other information cannot be trusted blindly.

    Scammers sometimes shamelessly copy data from other websites.

    There is only one thing that can help: to check the data carefully and, if necessary, to ask associations, placement agencies or local tourism associations whether the provider and the property exist.

  • Be careful when paying in advance!


    A deposit of 10 to 30 percent of the travel price is usual when booking a holiday home.

    However, according to consumer advocates, fraudsters often demand the total price in advance, sometimes via transfer services such as Western Union or Moneygram.

    The advice: don't go into it.

    If you do pay (in the case of last-minute bookings, for example, the total price is often due immediately), then in case of doubt it is better to pay by direct debit or credit card.

    In this way, the money can be booked back by the bank in the event of fraud.

  • Is there a seal?


    Seals should vouch for a certain quality and seriousness of the provider.

    Among other things, the German Holiday Home Association awards a seal.

    But of course scammers don't stop at that and sometimes put a picture of the seal on their website.

    Tip: click on it.

    "Only linked seals are real seals," says Göran Holst. After clicking, you get the information that the page legitimately bears the seal.

Are there any overviews of scammers on the internet?

Yes.

The industry associations VDFA and DFV have websites on the Internet where they bundle current fraud reports.

So if you are unsure about a portal, you can also take a look at these pages.

If the domain appears there, you have clarity.

But be careful: If a suspicious provider is not listed there, that does not mean that everything has to be in order with it.

The Watchlist Internet also lists portals and online shops that have previously been reported due to fraud, traps and fakes.

How do reputable booking portals protect themselves?

Booking through a reputable brokerage platform is therefore highly recommended in order not to be taken in by scammers.

Because the landlords are usually checked there as well.

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Göran Holst is one of the managing directors of the Travanto portal.

There, landlords would have to show extracts from the land register and identification documents, water and electricity bills, among other things, he says.

And: "We use Google Maps to check whether the object exists."

According to Travanto, it has more than 70,000 holiday properties on offer in Europe.

The number of cases of fraud per year is less than five, says Holst. The last case involved a property in the Netherlands.

"It was an identity theft with a loss of 6,000 euros." The alleged landlord had submitted a stolen ID card and a forged entry in the land register.

According to Holst, this damage was voluntarily settled by Travanto.

Who is liable for fraud?

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But what are the rules if you become a victim of vacation rental scams?

In some cases, the providers are liable up to a certain amount.

The German Holiday Home Association obliges its members to a minimum liability of 500 euros per booking.

"Everything above that depends on the provider," says Holst.

To put this in perspective: According to Holst, the average booking amount for properties in Germany on the portals organized in the DFV is 833 euros.

Nevertheless, if you pay thousands of euros for a holiday home, you may be left with a large sum in the event of fraud.

Only the terms and conditions (GTC) of the respective platform reveal how exactly the protection in the event of fraud is ordered.

In general, when in doubt, it can be safer to book via a platform - even if fees are then due, which can amount to several hundred euros.

Some landlords offer holidaymakers the opportunity to book their holiday home directly in order to save on the service fees due for the agency portal.

But be careful: when you leave the platform, you also leave its protective mechanisms.

If you come across fraudsters, the portal will definitely not give you any money back.

jus/Tom Nebe, dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2023-02-24

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