Honeymoon Ruined by Online Rental Scam - Couple Loses $3k
This one comes from the "can you even imagine" file. We've heard and seen a lot of heartbreaking stories related to rental scammers lately. This one doesn't quite take the cake because these newlyweds seem genuinely happy despite losing $3,000 on a phony rental in Seattle. Worse yet, they had planned to bring their entire family with them, which had to make it even harder to break the news to everyone.
The new bride was in charge of booking the accomodations and did an otherwise admirable job of vetting this transaction. She had exchanged 50 EMAILS with the eventual scammer and called him on the phone. From 2,000 miles away, she really couldn't have asked for any more contact.
So how did the Craigslist Scammer get over on her? Here's the gist from Seattle's Fox Affiliate:
“You wouldn’t think a scammer would give me a phone number that works and answer it, but this person did,” said fellow victim Angela Miceli.
Miceli agreed to wire $3,000 in cash for a two-week stay for her entire family.
“The scammer, he even used the name of the person who owned the house,” Miceli said.
She added that they tried to verify the owner, did a background check on him, and exchanged up to 50 emails over the last few months. On Thursday, the man answered his phone and said he was waiting for the couple to arrive.
When they got to the front steps, Miceli said, a property manager shared the shocking news: “This is a scam … (and you) are the fourth people this summer at this property that it has happened to.”
It was easy for the con artist — all he had to do was a quick search, pick a house and pose as the owner.
Q13 Fox News found the same home on vacationrentals.com.
“I just started crying,” Miceli said. “What do you do? We had all of our bags. He said he was going to be there.”
Then in a bizarre email, the man promised to refund her saying, “I’m very sorry for my actions. Please find a place in your heart to forgive me.”
When the couple called the man, there was no answer on the line.
Q13 Fox News called the same number on Friday but no one picked up.
From the accompanying video you get the impression that this 4 digit money loss isn't going to cause them to miss much of a beat, but what a bummer!
You can never be too careful, but it's almost hard to imagine taking more steps to verify the authenticity. Let's hope this scammer is caught sooner than later because he sounds like a regular Frank Abagnale!