24/07/2023
RENTERS
When looking to book a caravan holiday
Please do your research
Check the owners profile looks legit
Search the owners names on various sites, not only will you see a history of rental from them, you’ll come across any FB page/group relating to their caravan rental advertising, you may see reviews too, and if its a Scammer, there’s a good chance you’ll come across that too.
Pay any payment’s into owners own bank account, not a ‘family friend’ or ‘partner’ you can use a sort code checker to check the sort code given is legit, any that come up as a prepaid account are well known to be used by scammers (although they do sometimes use a bank account)
Do not accept any direct messages into your inbox, as again another trick used by scammers, better to reply to an owner who puts their photos/link caravan details etc in response to your advert. Then you contact that owner.
If an offer of a caravan seems very cheap and to good to be true, it probably is! Check prices others are offering for similar caravans on similar sites. (Although some owners do offer a cheaper holiday as an offer especially if its a last minute cancellation)
Most owners will have a good amount of knowledge of the area/site, ask lots of questions! Genuine owners do not mind this.
If told this offer is just for today etc, do not feel pressured to book!
Post on a group, asking for recommendations for said owner, again owners that are genuine will not mind this.Tag the profile name if you can.
Check all photos for outside of caravan match the inside of the caravan
Do not accept proof of ownership paperwork as these can and have been stolen from owners.
Ringing a site to confirm an owner is also not recommended as scammers have been known to create profiles in owners names.
If not fully sure, do not part with any money
There’s also a FB Holiday Scams UK - Action Group at the top of this page that has lots of updated information on about scammers