HomeAway Community: Does this inquiry sound suspicious?

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1456 Views 3 Replies Latest reply: Apr 3, 2012 9:42 PM by kiawahcottage

lmcdavis

4 posts since
Apr 3, 2012

Currently Being Moderated

Apr 3, 2012 10:50 AM

Does this inquiry sound suspicious?

Traveler Name: XXX

Traveler Email: XXX

We rec'd an inquiry yesterday that was suspicios for several reasons: 1) was from a strange sounding Russian name 2) - the spelling of the first name included our last name in it. 3) The email was also weird sounding, 4) it was for a full week stay 6 months from now during off season.5) It was for 4 people with no children, but this is clearly described as a studio condo w/ no separate bedroom (not really good for 4 adults) I emailed back & told the inquirer to provide more details & phone #. Any suggestions or similar inquiries/experiences?

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Tags: scams

ttaylor0
195 posts since
Apr 1, 2011

Currently Being Moderated

Apr 3, 2012 7:37 PM (in response to lmcdavis)
Re: Does this inquiry sound suspicious?

I got the exact same email using the exact same names, dates, number of people, etc. By the way, the last name that they used is the name of a character in a Russian book about a Ukraine girl raised by wolves.
This is scam if I have ever seen it.

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cmballer

Currently Being Moderated

Apr 3, 2012 8:10 PM (in response to lmcdavis)
Re: Does this inquiry sound suspicious?

There may be a legitimate question here, but it isn't about whether that was a suspicious inquiry. I mean: You give five good reasons why any reasonable person would think this is suspicious. Let's stipulate: It's suspicious. Or bogus. Or whatever you want to call it. I'll call it "spam."

So the question in my mind is: Presumably, Homeaway has developed a decent system for identifying and eliminating spam. Lord knows, it must have thwarted a million spammers by now. So how did this one get through their net?

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kiawahcottage
230 posts since
Jan 1, 2011

Currently Being Moderated

Apr 3, 2012 9:42 PM (in response to lmcdavis)
Re: Does this inquiry sound suspicious?

Hi Imcdavis,

Probably they are scammers. Be extremely vigilant about clicking links that look like they are inquiries from HA / VRBO or from your e-mail web mail provider. If you click on something and see something about having to re-login or session timeout, etc. don't click, just go back in through your bookmarks.

They are very good at spoofing HA /VRBO inquiries, so I repeat, if you have to re-login or session timeout do not click!

Paul

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