Please beware of bogus private rentals.
 

Hi all, I thought I had secured a fabulous possibly well vacated apartment, via a popular renting site, and almost paid in full, as my request was within the usual 6 week full payment schedule. Lets call this apartment Shangrila.

In between finding what I thought was the dream apartment -Shangrila - I'd previously searched on Marfran for a similar apartment and sent an email to them outlining my accommodation request.

Anyway, a few hours before I was about to send money to Shangrila's seemingly honest rent collector, I receive an obviously bogus email offering me the fabulous penthouse apartment above Shangrila, pertaining to be from Marfran.

Now a Hotmail account, accompanied by rather alarming images of the Hotmail account holder, offering better than Shangrila at a ridiculous price suggested quite quickly that I am rather dumber than I seem and thank goodness I didn't send any money, to anyone.

Please be careful when you rent apartments. The renting sites are not able to deal with bogus landlords as they are too big (the sites, not the landlords).

Thanks we need to be ever vigilant. The tale is I suppose if it's to good to be true, it's a scam. Enjoy your holiday in a real apartment.

I am afraid that there are many people who have been conned this year by these bogus agents. It is very sad for them but also for the genuine agents whose reputations can be destroyed by unscrupulous con artists :mad:.