Quote:
Originally Posted by STLRAY
I am planning to rent a house in TV soon and it occurs to me that I am about to send a five figure check to a stranger who posted pictures and a description of a house on a website. The person does not need to actually own a house to post these pictures and collect checks from multiple strangers. Am I being paranoid or is this a real risk? I know lots of people have been ripped off on adds for cars on E-bay and Craigslist. Do the people operating these websites confirm that the person listing the rental actually owns or manages the properties they are advertising?
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Be very careful. Places like craigslist run scams all the time. I worked 12 years for a vacation rental company and criminals would copy the photos and details off our website, put the house on craigslist with their information and ask for a large deposit. Usually they offered a discounted price, so if it seems too good to be true it probably is a scam. Places like **** are safer but your best bet is to go through a local rental company that you can verify. That way they should have maintenance people etc. on staff And also there are options in case an owner decides to pull the rental for some reason.
There are many wonderful owner-managed Vacation rentals but Be cautious about scams.