SCAMS ON RENTALS

There are some very nasty scams goings round which I thought I would pass on to everyone.

1st asks for your passport info - full details on Spain Holiday (but I can't enter the link for some reason).

The second - I think is a scam as it is so similar to the passport one - and she has tried it on me.

A French girl *** name deleted *** (aol email address) is trying to book our apartment for 2 weeks in August. Came from Spain Holiday. All seemed very genuine to start with. Here is a synopsis of the ploy.

Initially she wanted to pay cash on arrival - which we don't accept except for last minute bookings. Then she asked for Contract which she wanted before she would send any money (all our Ts & Cs are on our website). The she asked for French translations of our booking form as she does not read English and couldn’t do them using Google as it is a protected form. Then once she was “happy” with my translated form, she offered to pay monthly instalments. When I refused this she then offered ½ now (more than my normal deposit) and ½ at our 8 week balance deadline.

She then said that she had tried to pay us and that our account number was invalid. She sent me an image of a form with the amount she said she would pay and her signature on from a bank in France that is part of the HSBC group and wanted me to fill out a form with our full address, bank details, NIE number, signature and send back to her.

I politely declined and told her to try the transfer again as the info was correct. Not heard back now for over 36 hours when previously I was getting 2 or more emails a day asking lots of questions about garages, storerooms etc as these weren’t specified on the contract. She even filled in our booking form and somehow managed to unlock it – even though it was password protected. Very clever

As with the passport scam, with all my info she could then write or fax the bank and withdraw as much money as she could! Spanish banks are very helpful like that!

I have had a friend who speaks very good French check the emails and he says the French is very bad! Classic sign – but I can’t tell as my French is awful.

Please all take care. Do not give anyone your address where your bank account is at! Do not give NIE or passport details out and do not sign your contracts.

I now have a debit stop on my bank account. Debits may only be taken with my authorisation. Paranoid? Possibly, but I don’t want to lose my money.

This message was last edited by Pommers on 26/04/2010.

This message was last edited by Pommers on 26/04/2010.

We had a similar enquiry through Spain-holiday from a French lady (surname Annovazzi) who was very keen, lots of correspondence between us even although she spoke little english and me no french.  When we were awaiting her deposit she asked if she could pay cash on arrival.  She indicated her concerns that we may not be genuine and said they had been scammed before, although she had previously said in correspondence that she had never booked an apartment direct before.  Again cash on arrival is not our terms and I just refused to do this.  We do have a friend however who rents through Spain-holiday who has since said he sends a copy utility bill to clients wanting proof of ownership.....it makes you think!  You'd think since Spain-holiday require proof of ownership before you advertise that they would promote this to the holidaymakers to give them some comfort and prevent the need for them to ask fo ID.

We back with bancaja and they text everytime a non DD transaction occurs on our account so fingers crossed if there is anything untowards we can stop it as soon as it happens.

Had same enquiry, 2 groups wanted 2 weeks each, for propertues in The Costa Blanca, exactly the same terms and supplied phine number that didn´t actually exist

Very poor French acording to my translater, plus when I asked for their proff of ID, faxed copy of bith passport and drivers license first they rapidly disappeared 

Whilst this looked like a scam to begin with, the money actually arrived and she is now happily ensconced in our apartment. They are actually a really nice couple.