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John
Owens lets out his house in Pyrénées-Orientales. On two
occasions he has received suspicious enquiries by email. Each
time the sender wanted to send John a sum of money far above
the cost of the rental. 'On the first occasion the sender
claimed he had a client who owed him ten thousand pounds',
says John. 'He said he would arrange for this amount to be
sent and asked if I could return the difference in cash'. John
refused to accept the booking. 'On the second occasion the
sender claimed the excess money he was sending would cover the
air fare, so I suggested he contact a booking agent who could
book a flight and house rental using the entire amount'.
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Both
requests were made for out-of-season bookings, which made them
attractive at first glance.' The senders also asked for
non-standard lengths of stay so we built up a dialogue on
email'. says John.
Philip
Suter advises gîte owners to beware of the following types of
email:
- Enquiries
that seem too good to be true.
- Emails
that make it clear that the enquirer has not actually
looked at your property details.
- Offers
whereby the applicant is an 'agent' saying he has a
professor coming to your country for a conference.
Further
information for gîte owners can be found at www.euro-rentavilla.com/rental_scams_in_holiday
home_lettings.htm
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