Periodically, a story will make the national media about fraudulent advertising of a holiday let, where a family have lost thousands of pounds, and sometimes travelled many miles to arrive at the property to find it does not exist or is occupied by a genuine guest.

The forthcoming London Olympics has once again highlighted the potential pitfalls as reported by The Independent.

But how does this happen and what steps can the owner (and guest) take to avoid this happening?

How does fraud occur?

A fraudster can take a legitimate holiday listing, say from a holiday portal, letting agency or owner’s website and create  a new advert or listing using the photographs, description and location map. They can add false testimonials, prices and availability to make the listing look genuine.

The property is typically priced lower than others in the area to make it look good value for money.  Then a customer books the property, receives fake directions and key collection instructions, only to arrive at the property to find it does not exist or is occupied; i.e. not available for letting.

The practice has been reported periodically in the national press over the past few years in The Daily Telegraph, the BBC, and the Daily Mail.

How do owners prevent their property being fraudulently used and establish their own credibility?

Using a letting agent

A holiday letting agent will charge commission on bookings, but being in the portfolio of an established company with a good reputation will remove any doubts in a guest’s mind.

Booking direct with the owner - via a portal

For holiday letting portals, fake listings are a big issue and can cause bad publicity.  In response, they now offer genuine listing validation to ensure holiday makers can book with more confidence.

PureHolidayHomes.com system allows advertising owners to validate themselves through a series of security checks including bank details, the driving licence and personal information.  The service is free for advertisers and verified owners have a badge on their property listing.

Sean Collins, CEO of pureholidayhomes.com, comments: “We’ve always seen ourselves as a pioneering website and we were the first to effectively tackle the issue of homeowner fraud in our sector. Instead of asserting effort towards creating initiatives whereby owners of homes overseas have to try and prove ownership of a holiday property, which is very difficult when representing over 90 worldwide countries as all have different legislations on home ownership, we decided to attack the route of an unsolicited owner, namely their identity. By partnering with leading identity authorisation specialists the GB Group, we created an owner ID verification system whereby an owner passes a series of tests designed to confirm his identity, working on the basis that an owner operating under false pretences would never use their real identity to pass these tests. The scheme proved hugely successful amongst our homeowners and prospective holidaymakers and we were commended widely in the media, including BBC Breakfast news. We can now tell that owners who have passed the ID verification process and can therefore advertise the verified badge on their listing, have a 43% more chance of receiving enquiries.”

Owners who list on VillaRenters.com use their dedicated booking software, where payment is held and released to the owner post-stay, offering protection to guests.

FlipKey also conduct owner background checks and extensive property authentication as part of the sign-up process, as do Holidaylettings.co.uk who are now part of TripAdvisor.

Homeaway.com offer fraud protection to travellers as part of their wider travel insurance products.

So with the major portals realising the potential bad PR fraud has generated in the past, they have taken steps to prevent problems in the future.  And having verification will help owners ensure guests can book with confidence – it’s a worthwhile process to help generate bookings.

Booking direct with the owner - on their website

Owners who run their own website for bookings can include a number of features on the site to establish their credentials including:

• A landline telephone number and not a mobile.
• An about us page talking about who you are etc.
• Testimonials on Facebook or Tripadvisor where potential guests can see that the comments are made by ‘real’ people.
• Payment by credit card and debit card.
• Evidence of how long the cottage rental has been operated, as most fraudulent adverts are ‘fresh’ listings.

Is my property being used as part of a scam?

As an owner, you do not want holidaymakers turning up at your property unannounced expecting to be welcomed in. The following steps are not 100% failsafe, but they can help to identify fraud.

• Periodically use a search engine to see if fraudsters have taken your property description.  Copy and Paste a unique sentence from the description and Google it.  You can quickly see other websites where the text has been replicated.
• Search letting portals where you don’t advertise for properties where your holiday home is located, looking for photographs of your property which are used on other listings.  Google Images is also search tool for finding stolen photographs.  Try searching for <property name, town name> and see what comes back.

If you find your property details advertised for letting through an unknown source, contact the portal immediately.  If the property is being advertised on it's own website, you can contact the host of the website, which can be identified at http://www.whoishostingthis.com.

For guests – how to spot a scam

• Is the price significantly cheaper than similar properties? A bargain is not always what is seems.
• Does the property description match the photos? Use Google Street View to confirm the property is as described (and indeed exists!).
• Check how long a property has been advertised for. Anything over a year should be safe.
• When reading other guest’s reviews, check they are genuine by looking at their past reviews and how long they have registered for.
• Contact the owner with a booking enquiry to ensure they are genuine, preferably using a landline telephone.
• Check the booking terms and conditions thoroughly, paying special attention to booking deposits and damage deposits.
• Pay by credit card to ensure protection against fraud and avoid owners who ask for payment by wire transfer.