The business of fake villas for rent on the Internet

Every year in France, many scams for vacation rentals are reported in the media. Non-existent villa, house rented to several people at the same time or even homes rented while the owner occupies the premises. Chloe, a young French girl, has had a bitter experience. In a tweet posted Monday, August 19, she recounts her misadventure, photos in support: "You realize that we paid about 6 500 euros a villa in Croatia, we had too much haste and arrived there is found a wasteland ??? " Via the Booking.com website, Chloe booked two weeks in a house on the island of Hvar, for ten people. A testimony massively relayed on the social network.

At the door of a wasteland when we arrived at the address given by @bookingcom after 5h call with @bookingcom customer service no help or commercial gesture. pic.twitter.com/WpLCw7Hg8Y

Many vacationers like Chloe have been cheated. On the consumer forum UFC-Que choose, a discussion called "Abritel / Homeway - Big scam to rent!" brings together about fifty testimonials from victims. "We have fallen into the trap, a house in Les Sables d'Olonne at 5,600 euros", "Same for us in Hossegor, renting at 2,800 euros", "Same scenario as you all, I realized the scam 10 days from departure ". Almost all of them mention "credible" ads, and payments on the margins of the site, on accounts abroad.

Do not go out of the booking platform

Contacted by France 24, Thimothée Deroux, General Manager of Abritel / Homeway, a Franco-American group, insists on the responsibility of the consumer. "Any booking made on Abritel is fully protected, there is no risk of losing money because if you scammed, we will refund the amount spent.The people who complain are those who have been redirected out from the site by the fraudster, and have paid off our site.In these cases, we can not do anything, "he says, before adding that" warnings appear on all pages when booking ".

Why do vacationers book off secure sites like AirBnb, Booking.com or HomeAway? "To avoid paying the commission of our platforms", suggests Thimothée Deroux. "We can not force them to book on our site, but we warn consumers: when someone lures you off the site with his email or direct phone number, it's suspicious." He also asserts that an upstream watch is carried out to detect false ads, by technical and human teams, he refuses to communicate the staff "to not guide this sophisticated cybercrime".

"Many are not used to renting over the Internet"

On the platform of the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir, there are several tips to avoid these scams. "Copy / paste the text of the ad into a search engine: if it appears on several sites, for different homes, this content is probably fraudulent.You can use the same process for the photos presented. more to search for past scams by using names or addresses used. "

On the side of Chloe and her friends, the Internet finally managed to get them out of this uncomfortable situation. "I posted this on Twitter just to tell the story," says the young woman to France 24. "We did not expect so much relay but finally, it is thanks to that that Booking woke up . " The company proposed "only solutions not financially feasible" for the group of friends. "We are very happy to see that it has progressed, that we have been supported by people we do not even know," said one of his friends.

Like so many other victims, Chloe specifies that the reservation was made on the site "until payment", made directly to the bank account of the pseudo-owner. However, she explains that "the refund of the villa is in process by Booking". The group of friends found a new accommodation on their own on their own, after paying for a hotel night to turn around.