{"id":2618,"date":"2019-09-10T13:40:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T13:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2026-05-20T12:37:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:37:50","slug":"holiday-home-owners-tips-to-help-you-spot-a-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/holiday-home-owners-tips-to-help-you-spot-a-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips to help holiday home owners spot scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"White<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the years we have seen numerous scams but the one that appears to be the most common, and keeps rearing its ugly head, is the \u2018holiday maker\u2019 (aka scammer) who wants to pay too much money. It\u2019s an old scam that has been around for years, but it\u2019s still catching owners out! If anyone ever wants to pay more money than the value of the rental (however plausible the reason may appear), our advice is to stay well away as it is highly likely to be a scam.<\/p>\n

How do overpayment scams work?<\/h2>\n

The principle behind this type of scam has not changed over the years. The scammer will book the accommodation, make an overpayment and request the overpayment value be paid back once the funds have cleared in your account. The reasons for the overpayment are often work related (e.g. their company is paying and can only make one payment which includes travel, expenses etc) so it may appear plausible. But (and there has to be one!)… whilst the payment will initially appear to clear in your account, a few weeks later the payment will bounce and the scammer will be long gone with the money you paid them back (i.e. the sum of the overpayment).<\/p>\n

These scams used to be easier to spot as the scammers had very poor use of English. However, they are getting smarter, have a better use of English, telling more believable stories and at times quote contact details for both themselves and their companies which at first glance, adds a feeling of authenticity to the enquiry.<\/p>\n

Examples of overpayment scams<\/h2>\n

So let’s take a look at a couple of ‘typical’ overpayment scam emails. Whilst this specific example is a few years old the principles remain the same and it will hopefully help familiarise you with this type of scam. The names quoted in the scams below are very commonly used, however, there are numerous names out there being used by scammers.<\/p>\n

The first scammer calls himself Francis Martins and this was his initial enquiry email:<\/p>\n

\"scammer1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First tip:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>If you receive an enquiry that contains poor grammar, the alarm bells should start to ring. Do not automatically disregard it as\u00a0many legitimate foreign holiday makers\u00a0have\u00a0limited English, but be cautious.<\/p>\n

Second tip:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>‘Greetings’ is a word that scammers often use. Whilst it can also be used by foreign holiday makers more often than not it appears on scam emails.<\/p>\n

Third tip:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>If a phone number is provided, phone\u00a0it. It is highly unlikely you will get to speak to a scammer (as is the case above)!<\/p>\n

This was the follow-on email ‘Francis Martins’ sent to the owner:<\/p>\n

\"scam2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see, the grammar is a little better on this email (although the response is standardised which is another giveaway) and the reference to the company name is a clever tactic in creating trust. However, the receiving owner of the enquiry contacted the company who confirmed that this was not genuine.<\/p>\n

Fourth\u00a0Tip:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Should\u00a0anyone ever want to make an over-payment, our advice is to walk away from the booking and cease communication. It is not worth the risk and highly likely to be a scam.<\/p>\n

Fifth\u00a0<\/strong>Tip:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>If something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is! Scammers are often very flexible about their arrival date, happy to pay over the odds for the accommodation and quick to book without asking many (if any) questions about the accommodation itself (only payment).<\/p>\n

This next scam is a classic example:<\/p>\n

The use of grammar is better on this enquiry but just like ‘greetings’, the use of ‘good day’ is another popular phrase used by scammers. The mention of ‘total cost’ and ‘tax’ also raised concerns, as did the appearance of flexibility on arrival date.<\/p>\n

\"scam3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After responding to the scammer and offering an alternative date and price, this was the response (unsurprisingly) received:<\/p>\n

\"scam4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Needless to say, a booking was not taken from the Garcia’s!<\/p>\n

Other types of scams in the holiday rental market<\/h2>\n

Hopefully the tips and examples above will help you to easily identify an overpayment scam. \u00a0Some scams are very easy to spot but others are harder and more convincing. There are many scammers out there and a number of different types of scams using different tactics to con people out of money. We recommend that cottage owners take the time to read our articles about telephone scammers<\/a>, phishing scams<\/a> and vishing scams <\/a>. Some of these scams have cost cottage owners thousands of pounds so forewarned is forearmed!<\/p>\n

We have recently seen two different examples of phishing scams. The first is from someone pretending to be from the Kent Police Recreation Association (KPRA):<\/p>\n

Dear Owner, <\/em><\/p>\n

We are currently looking for a property to rent in your area for the 2027 season & would be particularly interested in your property. Our ideal property would sleep between 4 \u2013 6 people with a variety of equipment. I am from the Kent Police Recreational Association, (KPRA), a member\u2019s subscription club of which Kent Police employees are members. One of the services we offer is a self-catering holiday property scheme \u2013 offering our members subsidised holidays in various properties. This means that the only people you would have hiring your property are Kent Police Staff. The scheme works by block booking the season from March \u2013 November for a negotiated fixed weekly price. We do all the administration, marketing, documentation completion & money collection so all you would have to do is ensure the property is cleaned & maintained each week. We currently have 11 properties on our books. If after reading this, you think this is something that you would be interested in, please contact me with any questions or comments. I can then also give you contact numbers for the owners of the cottages that we currently use. Thank you for your time in this matter and I really look forward to hearing from you soon. <\/em><\/p>\n

Yours sincerely Charlene Miles KPRA Team Leader<\/em><\/p>\n

Red flags here include:<\/p>\n

First tip: <\/strong><\/em>Scammers promising a stress-free March to November block booking – again something which is too good to be true – but they want you to think about the guarenteed payout.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second tip: <\/strong><\/em>The email starts with a generic <\/span>“Dear Owner”<\/em> rather than your name or the name of your property. If an organization was genuinely hand picking your home for a long contract, they would address you properly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third tip: <\/strong><\/em>The real KPRA manages its own permanent, dedicated portfolio of holiday properties. They do not cold-email independent, private owners out of the blue to negotiate weekly rates.<\/p>\n

If you replied to Charmaine it is likely that they would then ask you pay an ‘admin fee’ or ‘insurance bond’ before they can release the block booking funds. Once you pay, they disappear. Or they will ask you to provide personal information such as banking details and copies of your ID, which they will use to clone your identity or attempt to hijack your bank account.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cancellation scam<\/h2>\n

The second scam was from a sam.emmanuel2002@gmail.com. In this instance the scammer had a UK phone number (which did not work), a French address but was wanting to pay via cheque in Canadian dollars. It is likely that he would have cancelled the holiday as soon as the cheque was cashed and would ask for an immediate refund. Foreign cheques can take several weeks or even months to fully clear so whilst your bank might show the money in your balance after a few days it will eventually bounce weeks later if it is fake. By this point you will have processed the refund. If you receive a cheque like this do not cash it and ignore any follow up emails.<\/p>\n

Next steps<\/h2>\n

If you receive a suspicious enquiry, do some research online. A simple search under the scammers name and email address or the content of the potential scam is likely to reveal if it is a genuine enquiry or not.<\/p>\n

If you are ever in doubt, feel free to email us and we will more than happily take a look and give you our opinion. It is also really useful for advertising websites like ourselves to be made aware of scammers so we can ensure we stop them contacting other owners.<\/p>\n

Have you recently been contacted by a scammer? If so, please help spread the word and\u00a0make other owners aware by leaving the details below.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years we have seen numerous scams but the one that appears to be the most common, and keeps rearing its ugly head, is the \u2018holiday maker\u2019 (aka scammer) who wants to pay too much money. It\u2019s an old scam that has been around for years, but it\u2019s still catching owners out! If anyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,4],"tags":[96,68,67],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2618"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11157,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions\/11157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}