Canadian tourist out nearly $7K after VRBO scammer impersonates Hilton Head homeowner
When a tourist from Ontario, Canada, arrived at the gate at Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head Island earlier this month, she found out her 1,000-mile journey was all for nothing.
The condo rental she had paid for nine months earlier was a fraud. Palmetto Dunes security informed her that renters were already living in the condo she had booked, and there was no record of her renting it.
The woman filed a report with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, which details how a scammer impersonated the real owner of the home and received $6,900 from the tourist to rent it out.
The home the tourist thought she booked belongs to real-life New York resident Catherine DeSa, who has been vacationing on Hilton Head for over 15 years.
The scammer used DeSa’s name to create a fake email address and correspond with the tourist before instructing her to wire money to secure the booking.
DeSa, who lives in Scarsdale, New York, said she’s been renting on VRBO and HomeAway for years without issue.
“It makes me feel disturbed about VRBO and HomeAway because they’re usually very reliable,” she said.
Several calls to the tourist from Canada were not returned Tuesday.
How did it happen?
The Canadian woman never spoke on the phone with the scammer, only sent messages to a Yahoo email account that included DeSa’s name, according to the police report.
After discovering the property listing on VRBO in May 2019, the woman sent an international bank transfer of $6,900 to a bank in New York for the two-month stay in the Palmetto Dunes condo.
A 2019 report from the Better Business Bureau warns that this is exactly what to avoid on sites like VRBO and Homeaway, which are typically considered safer because contact and transactions happen over their secured platforms.
“[V]acation travelers who allow themselves to be moved off the platform lose critical protections for their money and risk arriving to find that they have no place to stay,” according to the report.
The platform where the fraudulent listing took place, VRBO, told The Island Packet late Tuesday afternoon it was investigating the incident.
DeSa said the tourist has assured her that she’s working with VRBO to uncover the scammer and try to get her money back. She added that she’s not sure if the tourist stayed on Hilton Head following the incident in Palmetto Dunes.
How can you avoid being scammed?
Renters can follow general guidelines when booking rentals on Hilton Head to be sure they’re legitimate. These tips come from Peter Moersen of Low Country Coastal Rentals:
- If you can’t book directly online with your credit card, don’t book: Individuals trying to scam people will set up fake websites and steal photos and texts from legitimate renters.
- Speak with the rental company on the phone: Text messages can be sent by anyone.
- Don’t ever wire money to a rental company: Companies should have encrypted, traceable money-transferring services. When you transfer money by wire, you have no recourse if it ends up in the wrong hands.
- Read all the reviews: Most established rental sites — private companies, Airbnb and VRBO included — have several recent reviews of properties and details of when the reviewers visited.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
