Rental Scammer - [email protected]

[Con Warner]

Emailing from vacationplus.net - [email protected] and vacationplus.co.uk <--- domains reported

From: Vacation Plus <[email protected]>
To: Con Warner
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: £35 / 1br - One Bedroom Apartment Situated Close to Kni ghtsbridge. (Kensington)

Thank you for chosen our apartment.

This 1 bedroom apartment is available on your selected dates(May 4-15).
The rate per night is £35 all bills included.
We supply linen and all you may need to enjoy your stay in this apartment.
To secure this apartment,you are required to complete your reservation
process,pay 40% of the rent and £150 security deposit which is refundable
on your departure date.This enable us reserve this flat strictly for you.


Price for 11 nights is £385 40% required is £154 + £150(security
deposit)=£304
We offer 10% discount if you pay entire rent and the security deposit up
front.
Payment is by Bank transfer/western union.

To view the flat click;http://london.craigslist.co.uk/vac/2763592884.html

Regards,
Terry Jackson.

This person asks for a deposit payment via Western Union or MoneyGram with a promise that you can have the keys to a property that does not belong to him.

Sounds safe. It's not!

At other times, he will ask for proof that you are able to pay the deposit and rent due to a string of time wasters.
This proof is in the form of a Western Union or MoneyGram payment to a lawyer,a friend or family member.

In either case, if payment is made and you give this person the details, they will collect the money.
You will not hear from them again.

If you are reading this because you are looking for property to rent, and you are in contact with this thief you are probably searching Craigslist, Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment before viewing, then it will also be a scam. Please forward the mail to me at the address in my signature line and I will investigate and list them if necessary.

Apartment owner does not accept payment upon arrival as you will have to
complete your reservation process before arrival and that includes deposit
payment.

I can give you the benefit of making payment into apartment owner's US
account
if you are from the US.That will make it safer for you and also will save
you transfer charges.

Let me know your decision ASAP.

Terry

Here is the contact number: +44 702 402 5166

Let me know your decision so i could forward you apartment owner's bank
details.

Terry

[Natacha]

Yep,

Same thing here, but found this site too late. I have now lost £342. If vacationplus.net is a scam and was reported as such in January, why is it still operating?

[Dotti]

Welcome Natacha,

I'm sorry you lost money to these scammers.

Unfortunately, shutting these scammers down can be challenging at times. The scammers hide behind anonymity, and operate these scams across country lines, which leads to jurisdictional issues for authorities.

When their fake websites are identified, efforts are started immediately to gather the necessary evidence and have the sites closed down. Unfortunately, closing down these sites is not always an easy task, and it doesn't always have permanent results. While most webhosts do make the effort to eliminate these sites, there are exceptions--some webhosts place much higher demands for evidence and/or can be much slower to respond--there are a few that don't respond at all, in which case the volunteers killing sites have to pursue other routes to get them killed.

Even when hosts respond quickly and close the site down, the scammers may wait a few weeks to a few months and reopen the site on a completely different webhost, in which case the reporting process has to start all over again.