Destin Getaways is a member of the Better Business Bureau and is located in Destin, Florida. Guests can be confident that when they book with Destin Getaways or on www.destingetaways.com, that they will be staying in one of the company's 75+ professionally managed properties.
However, internet scammers have started stealing legitimate listings and posting them fraudulently. This is of great concern to our reputable company. To warn consumers of vacation rental scams on other websites, Alexis Ferrell (a member of our Guest Services team), submitted a press release to WMC-TV of Memphis, TN. Action News 5 featured the following story on the 5 o'clock news on June 29, 2011:
Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbB8RAXRhjw
MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - Internet scammers have crafted an elegant scheme to steal cash from Mid-Southerners renting homes in Destin, Florida.
Imagine driving with your family to Destin, Florida for a fun summer vacation. But when you arrive at your rental home, you learn that you're the victim of an Internet scam and out of thousands of dollars.
"It's very disturbing to find out that people are actually doing it," said John Paulsen of Destin Getaways.
According to Paulsen, two families have already been duped, after internet scammers stole two of his legitimate listings on DestinGetaways.com and posted fake listings on legitimate vacation rental websites.
"They have taken these properties and posted them on some of these other websites fraudulently," he said.
One family of 20 drove all the way from Arkansas to find that the real owner already rented the home to someone else.
"They paid $2,500 to rent it and find out that they're not getting the house because they had been scammed on the Internet," Paulsen said.
What's really unnerving is renters' hands are tied because the scammers are hard to track. In fact, some are out of the country.
Red flags include when scammers require a wire transfer or cashier's check, do not have a working telephone number, or may make spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.
"I've got my website now where you cannot copy and paste anything off of it," Paulsen said. "But I'm sure there are a lot of others that you can, so buyer beware."
If you're not sure about a company, call the Better Business Bureau. And listen to your gut - if it seems like the deal of a lifetime, it could be a scam.
Check to see if a business is legitimate here: http://memphis.bbb.org/Find-Business-Reviews/
Find frauds here: http://fraudwatchers.org/
http://scamwarners.com/
Copyright 2011 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.
Posted by J.D. Paulsen on 6/29/2011 0 Comments