{"id":2483,"date":"2014-06-21T14:58:36","date_gmt":"2014-06-21T14:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/?p=2483"},"modified":"2022-10-14T11:21:46","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T11:21:46","slug":"cottage-owners-beware-of-telephone-scammers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/cottage-owners-beware-of-telephone-scammers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cottage Owners: Beware of Telephone Scammers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An owner notified us of the elaborate telephone scam outlined below back in 2014. Whilst this is a few years old now, there are many similar scams doing the rounds today which have the potential to cost cottage owners significantly. Please take a moment to read up about this scam, just incase you are ever caught off-guard by a similar phone call.<\/p>\n

In this particular example,  a gentleman calling himself James was phoning cottage owners, claiming he worked for Independent Cottages (and he claimed the same for other advertising websites like ourselves).  He offered a special promotion for just a small charge of \u00a35-\u00a310 and stated that this would put the owner’s advert at the top of the search results within the region for a limited period of time.<\/p>\n

It was reported that \u2018James\u2019 spoke very well (English accent), was exceptionally professional and had a good sales pitch. At the time, he was also reported to be very knowledgeable about the owner and their property and the company he was supposedly representing.<\/p>\n

It would appear that the motivation behind this scammer was to gain the owners credit\/debit card details and then fraudulently use them. One owner reported that they did indeed take out the \u2018special promotion\u2019 from James when he was targeting a different advertising website, only to then have their account wiped out as they paid by debit card!<\/p>\n

Please be aware of this type of scammer. Whilst it may appear in different forms in the future, it is a very plausible scam (very affordable, tempting and professionally executed!) and one that is likely to continue to catch holiday home owners out.<\/p>\n

Tips to help you spot a scammer<\/h2>\n

Unfortunately there will always be fraudulent people out there trying to scam cottage owners either by email or phone, so we have put together some tips which should hopefully help you avoid getting caught:<\/p>\n