Young woman on the beach phoning the bank for credit card support
It is July and many of us are happily looking forward to the summer vacations that we look forward to all year, however, scammers are looking forward to scamming us with a variety of scams that can ruin your vacation.. Here are some common vacation scams to avoid.
HR Department Email
This scam starts with an email that appears to come from your company’s HR Department luring you to click on a link to submit your request for vacation time. Clicking on the link can either cause you to download dangerous malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft or luring you into providing your online credentials at work in order to get access to your company’s computers and data.
How to Avoid
Never click on a link or provide personal information in response to an email or text message unless you have confirmed that the communication is legitimate. Scammers use email addresses that may appear to be legitimate, and it is easy for a scammer to make a text message appear as if it is coming from a trusted phone. If you get a communication that appears to come from your HR department, contact them directly through an email or phone number that you know is legitimate.
Home Rental Scam
Renting vacation homes rather than going to hotels has been increasingly popular in recent years. There are many excellent websites such as VRBO and Homeaway that offer wonderful vacation homes. Many people will also go to Craigslist and other similar sites. These websites can be easy and efficient ways to find a great vacation home.
Unfortunately, they are also a great way for scam artists to steal money from unwary people looking for a vacation home. The scam generally starts with a listing that looks quite legitimate and there is a good reason for that. The listing is often a real online listing that has been copied by the scammer who merely inserts his or her name and contact information. The price is usually very low which attracts a lot of potential renters. The potential renters are sometimes told that the owner is out of the country and that there are many people interested in the property so if the tenant wants to be considered for renting it, the tenant has to wire money to the landlord somewhere outside of the country. Wiring money is a preferred method of payment for scammers because it is all but impossible for the victim to get their money back once they realize they have been scammed.
How to Avoid
There are a number of red flags to look for in vacation home rental scams. First, as always, if the price is too good to be true, it usually is just that – not true. Also be wary of landlords who are out of the country.
Never send your payment by a wire transfer, cryptocurrency, Zelle, Venmo or a cashier’s check. Use a credit card, PayPal or any other payment system from which you can retrieve your funds if the transaction is fraudulent. It is usually best to deal with websites that specialize in vacation homes, but you must remember that they cannot possibly monitor every listing to ensure that it is legitimate.
A simple way to determine if the listing is a scam is to check out who really is the owner by going online to the tax assessor’s office of the city or town where the property is located and look up who the real owner is. If it doesn’t match the name of the person attempting to rent you the home, you should not go through with the rental. Also Google the name of the owner with the word “scam” next to his or her name and see if anything comes up.
Hotel Room Service
Some scams are just so simple and effective that they remind us why scam artists are indeed the only criminals we refer to as artists. An old scam that is still being used effectively by scammers involves a flyer under the door to your hotel room that purportedly is an advertisement for a local pizza parlor. The flyer gives a telephone number for the pizza parlor which will conveniently deliver to your room All you need to do is call the number, give them a credit card and they will promptly send you your fresh pizza or other food. Unfortunately, it is a scam. The scammers have gone through the hotel and put their flyers under the doors. They then just wait for the telephone calls and steal your credit card number.
How to Avoid
A good rule to follow is not to order any food from a restaurant that puts flyers under the door of your hotel or motel room. In regard to the pizza parlor or other restaurant you can confirm online or even with a quick call to the clerk at the front desk as to whether the particular restaurant described in the flyer is legitimate and whether indeed the telephone number is their actual number. Sometimes scammers use the name of a real restaurant, but substitute their own telephone number. Never order or provide your credit card unless you have independently confirmed both that the restaurant is real and the telephone number is accurate.
