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Holiday home owners warned of cheque scam

13th September 2005 | back to article listings BACK    print this article PRINT

Jet to let property investors in France recouping their outlay through holiday home rentals have been told to beware a new scam that has targeted them. Unscrupulous con men have been making bogus holiday bookings and then demanding a refund before their cheque has cleared.

One agent representing property investment holiday home owners in France told the Telegraph that he had received hundreds of emails from fraudsters trying to trap unwary owners among the 450,000 UK citizens who rent out French property.

Alison Vowles, who has been renting out her gite with her husband for the past four years, described how she was approached by the conmen.

She told the newspaper that she was "overjoyed" when she received a request for a six months holiday rental during the fallow winter months. What's more, the prospective tenant would pay for the whole period in advance, as well as adding a little extra to cover any expenses.

She and her husband Jez were then astonished when a cheque for £7,000 – double the agreed rent - arrived in the post. "We are not rich hotel owners," she said. "Little by little, we are converting the property and every penny we get goes back into it. We live off my factory job wages."

"I began to be suspicious - I had heard rumours about a scam and, as the cheque was handwritten, I thought it looked a bit dodgy so I decided not to cash it," she added.
Her suspicions were confirmed when she received another email from the tenant saying that he no longer needed the cash in France and asking her to transfer it to a third bank.

The increasingly common con uses international cheques or money orders, which take up to eight weeks to clear. The 'tenant' sends an amount over the requested rent and after three weeks requests a refund of the difference.

While the amount is 'credited' to the property owners' account, and the difference is passed on, the cash is not actually counted as 'available funds' and it is only after two months that the cheque is revealed as a fake and the amount is billed to them.

Website manager and property agent Tony Tidswell told the Telegraph that he received up to 200 emails a week trying to fraudulently claim money from owners on his site. A frequent ruse is to claim to be representing a celebrity and add the extra to cover 'expenses,' he said.

Mr Tidswell's advice is simple. "No one has ever paid more than they should for a rental and if you are offered any more it is without any doubt a scam."


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