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In summer, the demand for holiday rentals increases and, with the increase in demand, so do the frauds in online holiday rental advertisements .
More and more people are choosing to rent a house or apartment belgium phone number data online due to its many advantages: it is cheaper, faster and we have a huge number of options just a click away. In a survey carried out by the OCU , 72% of respondents said they had found an apartment for their holidays on the Internet.
To meet this demand, there are platforms designed for this purpose. Unfortunately, they are not exempt from fraud attempts by cybercriminals, and this has given rise to a very popular criminal practice in recent years.
How do these scams work?
Scammers use legal and reliable websites specialising in holiday home rentals, such as Airbnb, Booking or HomeAway, to publish rental offers that end up being a trap for users.
Sometimes, our scammer, who usually resides in foreign countries , uses an intermediary based in our country to receive and then forward the payment. With this, they seek to make it difficult to identify the real scammer.
The trap begins with the creation of a fake ad, with photographs stolen from other ads on this or other websites and with a very attractive description and price . This bait aims to attract the interest of potential victims and at the same time generate trust.
Another option that cybercriminals often use is to send emails with links to supposedly reliable websites, replicas of other more popular platforms, but which are actually fake. The aim is to get us to end up sharing our bank details, personal information and other sensitive data within the cybercriminal's fraudulent website.
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As users, we tend to get carried away by the feeling of being in front of a bargain and being able to be the first to get it . As a result, we pay the deposit or even make an advance payment so as not to miss out on the opportunity. Without knowing it, we have just been scammed.
Days, weeks or months later, when we try to contact the advertiser, our attempts will be in vain, as the advertiser will have disappeared from the website and with it, our money. In the worst case, we will have ended up at the address that appeared in the advertisement only to realize that the apartment does not exist, nor does there any way to contact the advertiser.
What can we do to avoid this type of fraud?
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At OSI, we have put together some key aspects to keep in mind if we want to go on vacation, but we are worried about falling into this type of fraud:
1. Beware of bargains ! If you find very attractive ads at outrageous prices, be wary. Many scammers try to attract users' interest by means of attractive photos, highly sought-after areas or very striking descriptions.
However, there are scammers who try to balance this quality/price ratio . To do this, it is best to research the market prices, compare them with those of the offer, and continue with the rest of the recommendations.
2. A rushed description . If the published advertisement is poorly written, has spelling mistakes or is clearly written in a hurry, it is very possible that we are dealing with a scam. It is common for automatic text translators to be used, which leave the texts with typos or poorly written. The same can be applied to communications with the landlord.
