I have had email inquiries that were too vague and left me feeling suspicious.  Were they just wanting me to answer...to get my email validated?  One email was:  "interested. send details with price."  They are always lower case...use "throw away" emails that are not traceable to any links online.

In general, it is too common that inquiries, I'm referring to legitimate ones, are "incomplete"....meaning missing relevant information that would give me a sense of trust for the inquirer.....like a full name, a working phone #, a real email address from the inquirer.  This could be easily fixed if HA/VRBO would "mandate" that all fields in the inquiry form be completed --- or the form will not *send*.

I'd like to know who is contacting me....before I send them all my details.  I'd like to "screen" before I reveal my property details to anyone.  It's not a pefect world...I've successfully "screened" out people I didn't think were a "fit" for my place...I didn't want them here for various reasons...but it's getting harder to do.

The inquiry process is not a perfect system.  It needs improvement.  HA/VRBO can easily remedy this.

On phone calls....    I had gotten one phone call from someone, whom I believed, was just trying to get my email address....which I did not give.  It was a person who claimed that he had been trying to "email me"...but  couldn't get through....claimed something wrong with the address he had.   Said that he was asking for information for his  "mother" ...who is not email savvy ...just helping her....so could I confirm my email address, over the phone.   I did not....I will not respond to such a request!   He asked WHY...rather boldly...no etiquette.   I hung up.  That's how it happened.  I only had this type of call one time.

There is a market for valid email addresses -- which are resold to other scammers...and used for phishing schemes.   But, I have to tell you that VRBO, where I list, is giving out our email addresses enclosed with the "reply to inquirer".   Please...can you guys cease doing that, for us owners?

We're trying to stay "safe" in an unsafe world while we handle strangers who want access to our homes.    If I respond from my Outlook, then I'm giving them my email in the reply . But, for inquiries via VRBO,  from where I get steady inquiries although not as many as in the past,  I'd like to use the  REPLY feature without offering them my email address...but I realized recently that you guys are 'exposing' it.

The "bulk" inquiry feature is sending inquiries regardless of calendar marked "booked"....and often I'm responding "regrets"...and I'd like to keep my email "private" in such a response.  If I'm interested in the booking, I'd respond giving them my email...let me decide.

I recently had a situation with a local-based resident on my island that was  trying to "book" my cottage {even though my calendar was "full"}...and I do not want him and his drunken girlfriend to know where I am.  I used the *REPLY* feature thinking that "the system" protected  my email address,  and then realized that my email was exposed by you guys in the response form.     Not good.    I became nervous that he will find my exact street address by searching for my email address... and then "appear" at my door.   He did exactly that to an owner that I know here...who told me was robbed by that couple when they stayed in his rental....{credit card fraud}.

Thank you for asking feedback and comment from users here.  It's really important that we help you to shape a better, safer system to do business in. The best way to do that is to inform  you at HA what is happening on the owner's end.  Please help us to feel less vulnerable.

I just received this very same email from "Annamaria Crisalli" (for different dates) and so I googled it, and came up here. Thanks for posting! I am surprised that the request is for so far in the future.

The scammers have perfect English and grammar. It is a highly sophisticated scam and not easy to spot.

The comment below... one email for receiving inquiries and a different email for replying sounds good to me

What happens when your e-mail account gets hacked (as I have had done before).  If they get your password or access somehow to the e-mail address you initially receive inquiries from they can respond and forward all that mail so you never knew you got the inquiries.  Then they can correspond with the inquirer as if they were you and encourage fraudulent payment, which was the whole problem HomeAway was trying to avoid.

I didn't realize my e-mails were being forwarded to a bogus account for about 5 days when I finally noticed I wasn't getting any mail from one of my accounts.  I have them all combined in list view so all my e-mail addresses appear in the same place.  Therefore, it is not always immediately apparent if one address has not received mail in a while.

This is not only a great idea it should be made compulsory. The email address for logging in to your Homeaway account should be a different email address to the one that you have your inquiries sent to. As a further precaution the email address you use to reply to inquiries should be a different one than either of the 2 above.

But how many people will really do this? Very few until THEIR property is falsely rented out by the scammers.

And this property that was used to rent by the scammers will NOT be the property that was pfished. The scammers now, in order for these pfished properties NOT to be detected, are pfishing properties on one site Homeaway... and sending links to ads on Flipkey that are to be used to rent to victims... and vice versa. Originally the scammers pfished a property and and used that same property to rent to the victim. Homeaway was able to shut this down upon being notified by the victim. Then the scammers phished property A on Homeaway and used property B to rent out to the victims. Homeaway reacted by checking all the properties that the victim inquired with originally [if the victims kept their Inquiry Confirmations they could do this... many victims do not however] and eventually isolate the pfished property A that was being used to get the travelers contact info and travel requirements] NOW the scammers have reacted to their pfished ads being discovered by sending the victims a link to an ad on a completely different site.EG An ad is pfished on Homeaway on Property A. The victim is sent a link to property Z on Flipkey and the Flipkey property is used to rent to the victim. Flipkey immediately asks the victim for a list of all the properties they originally inquired with so they can isolate the pfished or phoney ad. But there are no inquiries... because the original inquiries were made at Homeaway. Being competitors they don't talk to each other and both will be trying to avoid liability. We started a small action group in Bali that has been hit hard. Through a media release we had victims email vacationrentalscamvictims@yahoo.com and send us documentation. We are just a small action group of property owners but we have been inundated with victim reports. Where the victims have kept Inquiry Confirmations we have been able to liase with the 2 websites and send the Original Inquiries to the site where they were made. This should not be our responsibility. Flipkey has been amazing in its support. Homeaway has not. Flipkey in order to minimise the personal loss to victims sent out this alert below to all Inquirers in Bali.  At the very least it will identify victims BEFORE they and their families are stranded in a foreign 3rd world country. Will it initally damage the rental business in Bali? Sure it will. Will it help to get travelers to be more security conscious in the long haul; get them to verify the number on the ad and call that and no other number which defeats the scam Sure it will. Will it stop the scammers. NO. Homeaway and the other sites now need to work together and I don't see that happening. Our major focus is to stop the receipt of funds. Presently they go to Barclays Bank which has hundreds of false accounts because their identification process is flawed. Perhaps only a class action suit will get them to lift their game and that is looming.

See below pic alert to Bali by Flipkey click on pic to enlarge... Bali is a small part of this scam. Other badly affected areas are Florida, Paris and the UK. Your tourist spot will become badly affected if just one of the advertisers in your area gets pfished.