A booking that looks too good to be true? It probably is too good to be true!
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2015-01-05 22:30:54 - Graham EllisThe scammers are getting cleverer. We are - always - mindful of bookings that display certain characteristics such as poor use of English. And that's "mindful" not "rejecting", since many of our hotel customers have very limited English.
A request for a booking in March came in the other day - "fishy", says I, for various reasons - a combination of poor English and other factors; differing email "from" and "reply to", and both of a pattern that appeared to include a tracking reference. Email addresses from easy-register services. Lack of personal reference to our place or part of the country. Willingness to move to a different week.
On 4 Jan 2015, at 08:55, Micheal David wrote:
Happy New Year
Good Morning
My name is Micheal David , I’m looking for accommodation for one week to rent
Starting from : 20 March 2015
Checking out Date : 27 March 2015,
Guest: 2 adult
Hope to read back from you with the cost prices for one week and if its not available for the date , Please get back to me with available date
Thanks Lots of warning bells from my list - but I did reply with a reference to our website / booking engine, or a suggestion to call (email copies, with my concern noted, to our team). Reply received:
On 5 Jan 2015, at 16:02, Micheal David wrote:
Dear Sir, Madam
Thanks for getting back to me, i am very happy that you will be able
to rent your accommodation to us,I have discussed this with my wife
and we have agreed to use your place, so i will want you to block
other people from renting this following date:
Arrival Date: 20 March 2015
Departure Date: 27 March 2015
Guest: 2 adult
Rental Amount: £ 570
Here is our company's name below :
Company Name : Oil & Gas Association Ltd
Below is our Name and address where you can send any document:
Name : Micheal David
Home Address: Queensberry Place
South Kensington, SW7 4DN
United Kingdom
Tell : +447937425198
Fax : +448435581071
Regarding the payment arrangement,I am assuring you that their won't
be any problem because our company's associate in Europe would be
paying for our holiday expenses and they have inform me that they will
be making the payment via Euros Bank Draft.
The Euros Bank Draft that you will receive will be in excess, has
Our trip expenses which include our B.T.A (Basic Travelers
Allowance)fee will be included with the rental fee base on trust. As
soon as you have receive the Euros Bank Draft you would have it
deposited into you account for clearance, you would deduct the rental
fee and i will tell you how to send our trip expenses which include
our B.T.A (Basic Travelers Allowance)fee to my traveling agent so
that he can do all paperwork's, After the Euros Bank Draft has been
cleared in your account.
I will appreciate if you can get back to me with the following
information that will be need by our company business associate to
make the payment out to you, so that you can receive the payment as
soon as possible:
Full Name on Euros Bank Draft :
Full address:
City:
Zip code
province:
Country :
Telephone Number :
I would be very glad if you can be of a helping hand, I will be
looking forward to read back from you with the information needed
above.
Thanks I'm thinking we'll give this one a miss. It looks just too much like a well known scam, which works like this:
* Booker says "I have a single payment coming to cover my whole trip"
* Deposit is made into bank
* Hotel pays excess back to agent as requested
* Bank informs hotel that payment is being pulled back as deposit was provisional and has bounced
* And of course no guests arrive
Net result - hotel has paid out to the fraudster the difference between the hotel rate and the payment, with no hope of recover. And hotel is left with unused and unpaid accommodation for the period in question.
See more at Independent Cottages Blog.