Holiday Property Scam?
Since 1920 we’ve let out our house in Harlech for summer holidays. We shouldn’t be the only ones to enjoy the best view in Britain.
On April 29th I got the following email. Compare it with the one that follows:
Cottage Reference: waa403/1
Enquirer’s name: Paul Markson
Email: Paul.markson@hotmail.com
Telephone: +001
Address :-
Canada.Message :-
Greeting,
Its very not that easy to look for a weekly holidays over the net,i have take a closer look at your property which i saw in Europ Holidays web site, well i guess its will be more O.K if i write you to know about the property in details.
Checking in date will be August 01 2008.
Checking out date will be August 20th 2008.
Or alternativly if its will not be possible for the 4 weeks rentals we can as well start the rentals right from
Checking in date will be Sep 01 08.
Checking Out will be Se 31 08 .
its will be either four weeks rentals or alternativly 4 weeks rentals,for the details about the property.
Firstly about the Locations of the property.
Secondly The cost for the Rental for the choosing dates total price needed for the dates choosen rentals.
Thirdly we required for discount for the cost of the rental.
Its shuold not be a problem using a personal Brand New Pc?,We just got married some couple of months ago,so we felt we shuold relocate for three weeks to four weeks ,Am from California and my wife is right from Canada Richmond,i will expect to have your answer.Let me have the total amount for the rentals.
Peter &Wife Anna.
The property was already booked, so I refused the booking. But he kept on trying to get a discount on the price, which I don’t do. I eventually ignored him.
This morning I got this:
Cottage Reference: waa403/1
Enquirer’s name: Mr Claude Fat
Email: Claude_Fat90@yahoo.com
Telephone: +33
Address :-Message :-
Greeting,
Its very not that easy to look for a weekly holidays over the net, I have take a closer look at your property which I saw in Great Britain web site, well I guess its will be more O.K if i write you to know about the property in details.
Checking in date will be Oct 01 2008.
Checking out date will be Oct 20th 2008.
Or alternatively if its will not be possible for the 2 weeks rentals we can as well start the rentals right from
Checking in date will be Nov 01 08.
Checking Out will be Nov 20 08.
its will be either two weeks rentals or alternatively 4 weeks rentals, for the details about the property.
Firstly about the Locations of the property.
Secondly The cost for the Rental for the choosing dates total price needed for the dates chosen rentals.
Thirdly we required for discount for the cost of the rental.
Its should not be a problem using a personal Brand New Pc?,We just got married some couple of months ago, so we felt we should relocate for three weeks to four weeks ,Am from France and my wife is right from Germany Berlin will expect to have your answer. Let me have the total amount for the rentals.
Claude Fat.
Note sorry for the bad english (Funny)..
It rang a vague bell, so I simply replied saying we were booked. The email bounced back, saying ” <Claude_Fat90@yahoo.com>: host f.mx.mail.yahoo.com[68.142.202.247] said: 554 delivery error: dd This user doesn’t have a yahoo.com account”
I then looked back through my emails and found the earlier almost identical one from “Paul Markson”.
What’s going on here? I’m sure I won’t be the only person to have got these messages. The problem is I can’t figure out what the scam they’re trying to work is.
Any ideas?
July 29th, 2008 at 11:05
Well Gwyn, you’re not the only one.
see here
http://www.vacationrentalscommunity.com/forums/p/134/223.aspx
David
July 31st, 2008 at 18:04
Looks like the scam where you agree a price, they send you too much in a cheque which you bank, they then ask for the difference. You are supposed to send it while the original cheque bounces. You are left out of pocket to the tune of whatever the difference was.
It’s the only one I can think it could be. If it was genuine, I wouldn’t want them in my house!
August 1st, 2008 at 10:59
Thanks guys, the holiday rental company I use (Cottages Direct) also got in touch and gave me the same story.
We screen all our rentals for grammatical errors and if they fail, they don’t get in (!)
Thanks for pointing me to these vacational rentals forums; I shall be joining up. Nothing like a good moan and whinge.
September 6th, 2008 at 02:42
You’re right Gwyn, something smells fishy. No one would be that desperate for a holiday home.
Good that you turned them down. A friend of mine rented our his holiday home and the cheque bounced. It took him a helluva lot of time to get the payment.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:59
This person is still at it and I received this today. I received a request a few days ago, followed by a warning from Rentalia, who we have our house advertised with. This person sent over 370 messages to their clients enquiring about properties.
Below is the message i received today
May 04 2010/May 30 2010 Confirmation..
Fri, 18 December, 2009 11:14:07From: Claude Fat View Contact
To: sesimbrahols@yahoo.co.uk
Good to have your mail,confirming the rental i will be sending the rental payment to you so to confirm our booking for the date and the time that we intends to stay,I don’t quite understand more about the air port i will like to know how far is the nearest air port to the property?,how long its will take us when we will be arriving into the City that the property is located,I will be in need of a Cadillac Car American car when we arrived for rent or say hire for maybe 1 month.i hope ill be able to get car hire within the area which the property is located for our daily movement so that we can really enjoy our self’s staying in your property, Booked dates will be.
Checking in date will be May 04 2010
Checking Out will be May 30 2010
Every thing is OK by me and i must confess to you that am really pleased staying in your property i hope we enjoy having a nice time in your property, i want know more about the monthly bills of the the property utilities etc.
Rental cost will be 1200Euros In my first mail i inform you about the Pc that ill be using when we arrived in the property,and at the present time i have booked for(2 brand new pc) so that every thing will be OK. and more also to enjoy our stay, its been long time that i have booked the (Pc personal computers)from the person charge and its cost 4000Euros with the delivery and i have decided that i will be sending the payment along with the rental cost which will be 5200Euros the payment will be sent to you by a Euro Bank Check Or British Pounds Check and its will be cleared in your bank in few days you will remit the 4000Euros to the Pc seller for the delivery of the Pc,we are coming on a Holiday trip we just got married some couple of months ago and my wife is 7 weeks pregnant and we intends to stay for 9 months but my wife and I have decided to stay for 1 month and see if its will be O.K.
For booking confirmation my full name is Claude 42 years old my wife is Isabelle Fat 39 years old and my wife home address in 143 Northchurch Road
London N1 3NT UK.
Euro Bank Check Or British Pounds Check, hope its O.K?
I will require for the details below.
Euro Bank Check Or British Pounds Check*******
Address of the receiver*******
Full Address*******
Cell Phone Number**********
Home Phone Number*******
Office Phone Number***********
Property Address Needed******
Payment Procedure i ought to have use my credit card but i don’t know how its works in your area but i will prefer to make the payment sent to you
Euro Bank Check Or British Pounds Check that will be O.K i mean cleared in your account in few days ,you might want to know more better about the Pc contact the person in charge s.deliveries@yahoo.com maybe further to the delivery instructions ,Let me have the booking form or you can send the booking form by email attachment.What is your full name so as to issue the Euro Bank Check Or British Pounds Check and your home Address to send it to and also fax number and phone numbers.I will also appreciate if you can call me on our British Mobile phone +447011135906 but we are from France.
Cheers Merry Christmas!
Claude Fat & Wise Isabelle.
December 18th, 2009 at 13:52
Bizarre. When Claude Fat tried to book my house last year he’d also just got married a couple of months earlier and he was also trying to buy a brand new PC. So that’s two wives and two PCs he’s got through in just over a year. That sounds like a completely trustworthy and legitimate customer to me. I wouldn’t hesitate to take his money. Fat git.
Does anybody actually fall for this scam? If he’s been doing it for a couple of years, as seems to be the case, I presume someone has. And they’re keeping quiet out of embarrassment.
March 30th, 2010 at 15:49
the letters i have been recieving are almost identical and the ‘cheque’ arrived today. glad i read letters on this forum. The man in question calls himself larry fat or larry king. thanks for advice
March 30th, 2010 at 16:04
Hey Sue, you should just bank the cheque and go on holiday, ignoring his increasingly desperate pleas!
I wonder if the cheque actually could be cashed?
Be reassured, he/they will go away in time.
March 30th, 2010 at 20:13
HI, the cheque looks very suspicious, almost like a very good photocopy. The cheque was for 4000 pounds MORE than the rental price, this was supposed to pay for 2 lap tops that were to be delivered before his arrival but i still cant understand what the scam was as i had stated that i would not pay for the p.c’s until the cheque had been cleared which it obviously wouldnt be. sue
March 30th, 2010 at 20:36
£4,000 more! That would make anyone suspicious! They must have been really smart laptops.
But he must get away with it from time to time, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth his carrying on.
What bank is he using? Shouldn’t they have some responsibility?
A cheque can apparently clear and the bank can then take the money back. My business was paid £900 by credit card and the bank took back the money 89 days later — I wrote a blog about that but I can’t find it anywhere. If I do find it I’ll post a link to it here.