Short-term Rental Hosts Beware: Vrbo Scam

You read a lot about Hosts who dupe guests on Airbnb and Vrbo, well here is an example of a scam targeting hosts.

Recently I recieved an inquiry from a potential guests who wanted to book my home. It starts where he simply asks if the house is available. I am thinking “ok, why can’t he just look at the calendar”. So I foolishly respond that it is available. What first set off alarm bells for me was that he wanted to rent for 17 days in November for just 2 people. This is off-season for me. Typically I am not receiving bookings for 17 days. Also my bookings are usually for 6-8 people. In fact the least number of guests I have had at one time is 4.

Next I receive a message saying that him and his wife are going on vacation and that the company is paying for the vacation trip. Huh? Finally, the other shoe drops where he says he will need to pay via a certified check and asks for my mailing address. I am never going to rent to stranger outside of Vrbo or Airbnb. It also goes against thier policy to try to go around this rule if the conversation started there.

After discussing with other Airbnb and Vrbo hosts, I learned this is a known scam. The scammers look for properties in seasonal areas and check for large blocks of unbooked dates. They find the house either because you gave them an address for the “check in the mail” or based on information provided in your listing. They can often ascertain where you by viewing your outdoor photos. Not sure what they will do when they get there, but assume they either plan to rob the house or squat there. From the syntax it appears English is not their first language (see photo below).

Every door and window in my home has an alarm sensor and I have outdoor security cameras. Still this has made me very nervous. A few days later, I received an almost identical email inquiry for 2 weeks in October. The scammers are even smart enough to send a pdf or jpg attachment of their phone number so you can converse outside of Vrbo to “speed things up”. They know that Vrbo will block their phone and email address in the message.

I do not know if the same thing is going on through Airbnb, but can only say, the 2 inquiries I received were via Vrbo. I am listed on Airbnb as well but have not received a similar request. Beware hosts. It’s a jungle out there and scammers have found another inroad.

More Information

Vrbo does not offer much guidance on the subject, but I did find this article:

https://www.vrbo.com/en-gb/help/articles/How-to-Spot-a-Vacation-Rental-Scam-Inquiry

Found this thread on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/vrbo/comments/s0cnz8/hosts_pay_by_check_a_scam/

And it it is discussed here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/1062976-scam-requests-from-vrbo-happening-again-beware