{"id":5090,"date":"2019-05-02T09:33:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T09:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/?p=5090"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:12:13","slug":"scammers-also-target-holiday-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/scammers-also-target-holiday-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammer posing as a holiday maker – holiday home owners beware"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Unfortunately \u2018scamming\u2019 seems to have become part of everyday life. The\never evolving technology and increased sophistication of fraudster\u2019s tricks has\nseen more and more people fall for scams. Anyone who has an email, social media\nor bank account can be subjected to a scam. The holiday letting sector is sadly\nnot immune to scammers. Whether you are a potential guest, or a holiday cottage\nowner, there are people out there trying to trick you into giving them personal\ninformation or money. This article aims to raise awareness of the different\nways scammers can trick us. The easier it is to recognise if we have been targeted\nby a scammer, the less likely we are to fall for their tricks.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brief overview of\nthe different type of scams<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A lot of holiday cottage owners are aware of the most common scams.\nVarious forums, websites and social media groups enable people to share\ninformation and give each other the heads up if a particular scam is doing the\nrounds. The two most common forms of scams are phishing and vishing scams. What\ndo these mean? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phishing scams<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Phishing scams are when you are sent an email which encourages you to\nclick on a link or log into your account. The email often pretends to come from\na legitimate company such as your bank or PayPal. If you click on the link in\nthe email it usually takes you to a fake website which collects your personal\ninformation. Alternatively, you might be asked to open an email attachment\nwhich is a computer virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few common phishing scams sent to holiday house owners. In some the scammers pretend to be a potential guest, or they might pretend to be a photographer from a lifestyle magazine wanting to promote your property. You might even get scammers who pretend to be from advertising websites such as Independent Cottages or HomeAway asking you a click a button to view details. Read more about how phishing scams can affect holiday cottage owners here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vishing scams<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Vishing scams are similar to phishing scams but they take place on the phone rather than through email. The word vishing combines \u2018voice\u2019 and ‘phishing\u2019. Someone will call you and usually pretend to be from somewhere like your bank, or a government or debt collecting agency. During the phone call the scammer will try and get you to reveal information such as passwords and pin numbers or try to scare you into paying for something that you don\u2019t need to. Find out more about how you could be affected by a vishing scam here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately no one is immune to these tricks. Whether you let your holiday house through an agency, with an OTA (online travel agency), or you take direct bookings, you can be caught off-guard by a convincing phone call or email. Here are some top tips to help you spot a scam<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latest scam alert<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just as we think we are up to date on the latest tricks employed by scammers they think of something else! One of our holiday cottage owners had a guest who had their email and mobile phone hacked by a scammer. The owner received an email from the scammer (posing as the guest) asking to cancel the booking. As there was nothing unusual about the email, the owner cancelled the booking and replied to the guest\u2019s email with the financial details of the cancellation. The owner received an email back from the scammer requesting that the money owed be paid into a bank account. Luckily the actual guest realised that their email account had been compromised and phoned the holiday cottage owner in case they had been affected. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this particular case, a scammer had obtained the log in details to the guest\u2019s email account. The scammer then reviewed the victims sent items and spotted an \u2018opportunity\u2019, i.e. a holiday that had been paid for but not yet taken. The scammer cancelled the holiday by using the guests email and asked that any money owed was paid into their (i.e. the scammers) own bank account. What tends to happen then is once the money is paid into the scammer\u2019s bank account they will immediately move it to a different account and shut the first bank account down. It could be a little while before either the guest or owner are aware of what has happened, by which time the money will have disappeared with no trace of where it went. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This scam can happen to anyone transferring money online, not just\nholiday home owners, so it is worth ensuring we all follow a few rules to minimise\nthe chances of it happening to us. If you make a BACS payment to anyone (for\nanything) always ring a landline to confirm that the bank details are correct.\nThis also provides an opportunity to ensure the identity of the person you are\npaying. For this reason we recommend you taking a holiday makers address and\nlandline phone number at the point of booking. In this case the scammer had\nalso compromised the guest\u2019s mobile phone. Their mobile number had been\ntransferred to a different mobile number under the control of the scammer. If\nyou have any suspicions make sure you call a landline and not a mobile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our opinion, email scammers are unlikely to speak to you on the phone. However, if you are suspicious when speaking to the \u2018customer\u2019, you could try asking a few \u2018false\u2019 questions. For example, when I recently contacted my bank, in order to confirm my identity, I was asked a few questions about payments from my account. Hidden amongst these questions was a \u2018false\u2019 question. I was asked which local organisation I paid certain bills to. I was given three reasonable options. I said that I didn\u2019t actually make any such payments. This is something only I would know. This, of course, was the answer that the Customer Service Agent was looking for. Using the same technique, you could ask a trick question that would encourage the fraudster to answer incorrectly. For example, you could ask, \u201cdo you also want to cancel the booking that you made later in the year?\u201d, \u201cDid you enjoy your last stay with us?\u201d or \u201cDo you still have your dog Rex, and will he be coming with you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, contact your bank to discuss any additional security measures they\ncan put in place to protect your account. In this case the scammer had access\nto the owner\u2019s bank details via their guest\u2019s emails. And finally, check what\nbank account you are being asked to pay money into. In this case the scammer\nhad opened an account with the N26 bank. Whilst the N26 is a valid bank, it is\npossible to open an account online with limited identity checks. If you are\nasked to transfer funds into an N26 bank account double check that your money\nis going to the right place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Working together<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The aim of this article is not<\/em> to send you into a panic about scams! Yes, these stories are\nreal and can happen to any of us. However, following a few simple steps vastly\nreduces the chances of you being caught out. Unfortunately these fraudsters are\nnot just part of the holiday letting industry. They are everywhere. This advice\nholds true for dealing with anyone you don\u2019t know who calls or emails you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure other holiday cottage owners are kept aware of\nany new scamming tricks please share any useful stories below. We need to work\ntogether to stay one step ahead of these scammers! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately \u2018scamming\u2019 seems to have become part of everyday life. The ever evolving technology and increased sophistication of fraudster\u2019s tricks has seen more and more people fall for scams. Anyone who has an email, social media or bank account can be subjected to a scam. The holiday letting sector is sadly not immune to scammers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090"}],"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=5090"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11129,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090\/revisions\/11129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}