Two sisters wanted to visit Hilton Head Island — instead, they lost thousands of dollars

It appears someone has scammed two sisters wishing to visit Hilton Head Island out of more than $2,000 through a rental scam.

According to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, two women wanted to book a two-month vacation on Hilton Head Island this season, located a listing on VBRO.com and made contact with an alleged property manager.

One of the women said she contacted the suspect via email about renting a property, who told her he had multiple listings available and that all business should be sent to him directly. The women provided a deposit of $825, allowed him to place charges on one of their credit cards for the property and later received a contract confirming the reservation that did not list a property.

After questions from the women, the suspect sent them pictures of a property, but they soon became suspicious that not all the photos were of the same property. The women told law enforcement they questioned the suspect, who then told them the unit they had rented was occupied by someone displaced by Hurricane Matthew.

Charges were discovered on the credit card provided to suspect amounting to $1,300. The women told deputies they were scammed out of $2,125.

The report states law enforcement believe the suspect “has multiple involvement’s with similar incidents.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Two sisters wanted to visit Hilton Head Island — instead, they lost thousands of dollars."