By Katie Curley
NEWBURYPORT — Vacation Home Rentals received a call earlier this month from a man in Maryland saying his property was listed as being a rental. The only problem was, along with the description of his home and photographs, a different name and mailing address for payment was attached.
It is just the latest in a long tradition of Internet and e-mail scams out of Nigeria.
"Every other Nigerian scam out there is getting more and more sophisticated," police Inspector Brian Brunault said.
Brunault deals with a wide variety of computer crimes on a daily basis.
"What worked for them in the past doesn't anymore so they devise more and more scams," he said.
Carol Irvine and Jerry Jongerius of Idyllrentals.com said they contacted Thomas Gilmore of Vacation Home Rentals after they found out about the scam.
Jongerius was contacted by a renter last week asking for a receipt for a rental of their home through another online rental site.
"The only problem, he never rented from us," said Jongerius, who lives in Maryland. "To make a very long story short, someone posted our rental properties on the Web, posing as the owner, and collected rental deposits for next year. We know of one such renter, Tim, who sent a registered check for $4,550 to the fraudulent address in Wisconsin."
With a background in tracking software, Jongerius was able to track the e-mail back to Nigeria. With the help of Wisconsin police, the check was returned to the renter.
"Since then, we found our property on other sites as well, such as Vacation Rentals," Jongerius said. "We have been contacting everyone trying to get the listing taken down."
The rental Jongerius and Irvine are renting is at North Topsail Beach, N.C. They say since researching the scam, they have found other properties on North Carolina's Outer Banks to be fraudulent as well.
"Thomas Gilmore runs a legitimate business," Brunault said. "He took the posting off his site and said he is seeing more and more scams like this from Nigeria."
Gilmore said he takes steps to protect himself by cross-checking information and trying to block IP addresses from fraudulent sites. He says since starting Vacation Rentals five years ago, he has run into scams about three times.
"We have 1,200 properties and $100 million in rental transactions," Gilmore said. "Any online business runs into these problems."
Gilmore said he spends countless hours and dollars making sure his company is equipped to handle online scamers but offers no guarantee, since his company functions much like a newspaper or magazine where vacation homes are advertised.
"We check IP addresses, credit card transactions; we hope to keep the rentals from going on our site to begin with," he said. "We tell people to check the properties out."
Gilmore provides a list of tips to prevent fraud on his Web site as well as ways to make sure properties advertised are legitimate.
"Proceed cautiously with international payments using a money order or wire transfer," he said. "Warning signs include an unusually low price, uncertainty regarding the exact property location or any suspicious behavior of the property owner or manager."
Gilmore also says it make sense to speak to the owner directly rather than over e-mail, and if you're still uncertain, ask for other renters' numbers to call and verify.
"They are doing all they can," Brunault said. "The Nigerians put a lot of thought into their scams, and you don't even know they are scams anymore. You have to stay on top of it, and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
In July, a similar scam in Beverly netted Robert Booth, 31, who is accused of swindling at least four people out of $2,000 in an apartment rental scam through Craigslist.
Police say that Booth, a former tenant at 40 Bartlett St., posed as the owner and landlord of the four-family apartment building and pretended to rent out a space on the second floor.
Fraud Prevention Tips
Pay with a credit card — cards usually offer protection in the event your accommodation is not supplied as promised.
Avoid wire transfers
Proceed cautiously if you must make an international payment using money order or wire transfer
Speak to the owners or managers on the telephone rather than e-mail
Ask for references from past renters
Request the street address of the property rented and look it up on one of the Internet-based map sites.
Ask the owner where else the property is advertised on the Internet and for how long
Never give out personal financial information
Courtesy: Thomas Gilmore
