I am one of a growing number of victims of one of many scams being pulled on customers of these vacation rental property websites.  The victims are from many countries, but most victims visited HomeAway.com or VRBO (vacation rentals by owner), or their subsidiaries.     It happens like this:  You visit one of these websites, e.g. HomeAway.com.  You find a property in USA, or other countries, fill out name, dates rental needed, optional message, then click on "send email".  You receive a confirmation of inquiry and are told that the owner or management team will be emailing you.  Shortly, you receive emails saying the dates are available, what the price will be, and often an offer of a discount should the total be paid in advance (not just a deposit).  If you agree to this, they send a very legit looking contract, and instructions for a bank wire transfer. {HomeAway now has a pop-up on the site to encourage you to call the owner's phone number listed with the ad before sending money.   Owners sometimes, as was the case for me, are not home, maybe even out of the country.}   I emailed back to say that I would not transfer money without speaking to the owner.  Someone called me claiming to be the owner, used his name, even.  He discussed aspects of the property and told me where to fax the signed contract and proof of the wire transfer.  I wired the money, and he emailed the same day to thank me and tell me it would be booked within a couple of days.    A week later, I received a message from HomeAway that the email of the real owner had been hacked and that I had better not send any money until I had spoken with the real owner.  I won't go into how I found the real owner, but when I did he said 3 other people had paid for his properties over a 10 day period and he had no emails from any of us.  He was not aware of what was going on.    I found a forum discussing just this issue on HomeAway.com.  Don't know to look for it until the damage is done.  Some people who posted their stories on this forum got together and joined a forum on facebook (invitation only to keep out scammers and HomeAway.  HomeAway is scrambling to separate themselves from any responsibility or liability in this matter despite the issue stemming from inquiries on their websites).   In most cases I have read about the money is wired to UK banks, and banks here in the USA are sitting up and taking notice of the huge number of their customers who are victims of this scam.  Expect to hear more from Travel writers on this matter.   Insisting on using a credit card would have made a difference in all the cases I have heard of as you are protected against Fraud.  I did not, and lost $3800.
Posted by KEB55