Community: Message List - Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:10:41 GMT

Hi Debj

I agree completely with you. I never give out a home address until we have received a deposit of $1000 and verified the check is good.

May times we get an email requesting address, when we ask a question such as are dates flexible, what are your needs, please provide a phone number etc, we rarely get a response back. I am also asked addresses so they could look up location of our homes and I state landmarks nearby. I explain, for security reasons, we cannot give out an address.

I have put a disclaimer on all websites that we never request that money be sent via Western Union or via wire transfer. Payment is always made by check as we do not accept credit cards. This way if a scammer requests a wire transfer perhaps the renter will remember our website stating that we never ask for this.

Marilyn

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:57:51 GMT

I don't THINK I've been hacked (so far- knock on wood). I do have one comment/question..

We do not provide the address of our home until we have received full payment. The address is not on our Rental agreement either. The name of our home and it's listing # are- this is at the advice of our attorney.

SO, if someone hacks your email, responds to a renter by sending a bogus contract, then takes the $$- won't the renter want to know the address of the home once they have made full payment?

Maybe I will add a clause to my listings on various sites stating that the address of our home will be diclosed to the Primary Renter after they have spoken with me personally, and payment is received.

My normal process is to speak personally with the renter- just a short phone call to verify things- once i receive a completed application/agreement and BEFORE I charge their CC. This works for me since I don't use RM, and all my guests appreciate the caution.

There's been much conversation on phoning/talking with renters in these forums- some pro, some con. I can only say I, as a traveler, would not send any payment to anyone unless I've talked briefly with the Owner atthe phone # lsited on their listing.

Debj

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:45:01 GMT

I just got hit by this type of scam. I received a voicemail from a potential renter who had some questions about the rental contract that was being sent to her. But I never heard of her or had seen her inquiry!

In this case someone using the email rentluxuryvillas@gmail.com had intercepted the VRBO inquiry and was in the process of trying to get this person to do a $1800 wire transfer to them.

VRBO support deactivated my account until I changed my contact email address (not just the password), informed me about the phising scam, and told me they had encountered this email address performing other scam attempts with VRBO property owners.

As it turned out, VRBO's advice wouldn't have fixed the security breach for me. I used a contact email address for VRBO that I had forwarded to my primary Gmail address. While I usually access my Gmail account from an IMAP client, I brought up Gmail in a browser and clicked on the "Details" link under the "Account Activity" link in the bottom right portion of the screen. This showed a table of access details over the last 24 hours - all from my IP address but one. I was in Lake Tahoe, but this IP address was in Washington D.C. The scammer!

So it turns out that ths scammer had somehow hacked into my main email account, and had intercepted the VRBO inquiry forwarded to it.

To ensure this never happens again I turned on Gmail's 2-pass verification security feature. It's a bit of a pain, but makes it nearly impossible to have your email account hacked, and I would encourage all homeowners to use a Gmail account and turn the 2-pass verificaiton feature on. Here's a link that shows how it works.

The other thing I did was activate SMS alerts from VRBO whenever an inquiry comes in.

I'm going to escalate this issue with VRBO however. It seems they can be more proactive to attempt to track down and have these scammer prosecuted, as they are violating a number of different federal laws. In this case I have the scammer's IP address, and it would be easy to subpeona their ISP and get their identity and hopefully have the FBI proceed with investigating these scammers.

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:23:58 GMT

Same scam, just caught an Italian family. This time it was luxuryvacationrent@gmail.com, but absolutely identical process and text.

Homeaway claimed our email (specifically, gmail) account was compromised. We use Mac and Ubuntu, so are somewhat less likely to have standard viruses. Both systems use global corporate security systems.

I would propose that Homeway / VBRO send some guidelines on how to book / pay that includes caution, for example, with requests for payment with Western Union.

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:08:42 GMT

We have been in contact with someone suspicious for property vrbo #xxxx Kona Bay Estates.

All of the info was the same. Email contact, discounts, requesting Payment within 72 hrs and wiring the

Money to barclays bank in london. That's when we said something was not right. The email they used was

Over.housetrades@gmail.com. We have reported this to vrbo.

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:30:48 GMT

It is now many months later and has anyone done anything about this yet?

Would appreciate current update. Thank you.

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:10:20 GMT

That is the EXACT email that duped me, over.housetrades@gmail.com

They had me send money to Natwest Bank in London. I also reported this email to the HomeAway security team, FBI, FTC, and MA Attorney General.

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:24:09 GMT

Hi bandofdiamonds,

Please report this incident to our Customer Support. Our Trust and Security team will need to investigate.

Travis

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:19:04 GMT

Yes, just now. One of my guests just sent this to me. Scary!:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Vacation Rent <villaeninfonline@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, Feb 12, 2012 at 3:24 PM

Subject: Re: Inquiry from **** - Jul 23 to Aug 7 - Listing #234923

To: ****

Hello Karen,

The dates are available to book for $6000 including cleaning fees and taxes.

If you choose to book now , you will be eligible for several cost saving options which include a 10% discount for full payment in advance Our regular payment terms, 50% in advance and 50% at check in.

I am at your disposal for any further information.

Best Wishes,

I did not send this, but it is my vrbo #. (I took out their names and e-mail address)

Re: Imposter responds to inquiry on my listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:42:43 GMT

Scary. The email you receieved is nearly word for word the email my friend and I received while searching for a rental home in RI, though slightly different and from a different email address (but was also a gmail account). Unfortunately for me, I wasn't smart enough to realize it was a fraudulent email and neither was my friend. I am completely new to the whole renting and vacation search and I fell for it bigtime, transferring $1647 to a bank in England. I had no idea that transferring money was probably the #1 sign of a scam artist. My assumption was that here was this rich person who happened to have an overseas bank account, not entirely uncommon. Figured I had found an amazing deal on a great place and so didn't my friend. The rental agreement looked legit, even sending a refund form in case I was to request that.

I honestly feel so dumb, I can't believe I let this happen.