In yet another “high profile” fraud, the Better Business Bureau warns consumers of new Florida vacation rental scams in Northwest Florida. Click here for the full text of the recent warning from the BBB.
Quality Orlando Vacation Rentals
This time the fraud involves utilization of “Craigslist” to involve fake vacation rental listings. These listings often use touched up photos stolen from other websites to promote their own nefarious activities.
How Do I Avoid Vacation Rental Scams?
In the article, the Better Business Bureau recommends the following to avoid these house rental scams:
- Deal with local companies or owners if you can
- Avoid wiring funds
- Requests of personal financial information should be a big red flag
- It is always worthwhile to check out the company by going to the BBB website
Of course, not all individuals or companies using Craigslist are fraudsters. The Better Business Bureau has a few more tips if you are interested in spotting “red flags” for Florida vacation rental scams:
How To Avoid Vacation Rental Scams
- The seller or management company is located in another country
- The seller or management company refuse to meet you locally in person and will only contact you via e-mail
In the course of writing blog posts, OVH 360 has produced lots of content on avoiding Florida vacation rental scams over the years.
- We warned in June, 2014 about bulletin board type vacation rental scams which has become increasingly common.
- Back in 2012, we blogged about this growing issue and opened with our first suggestion – check out your prospective vacation home rental provider on the BBB website. Click here for that OVH 360 post on rental fraud prevention.
We suspect that this one tip (researching the holiday rental provider on the Better Business Bureau website) would eliminate 90% of the rental fraud that takes place on the internet. We highly recommend taking 5 minutes of your time to do this, and to eliminate the chances of Florida vacation rental scams.
Hopefully all of this information makes you think twice about selecting a reputable vacation home rental provider in Orlando. OVH 360 provides itself on its trustworthy vacation home management practices and selecting the highest quality vacation home rentals in Central Florida. Every holiday home in the OVH 360 portfolio is hand selected for quality, location and value.
