What is the SAFEST form of payment when paying for a vacation rental?

[tupac]

We've used Craigslist over the last three yrs to secure a vacation rental, this time there seems to be a lot of off-site property management places advertising rentals - & when they email you it's cut & paste info & feels very robotic. In other words, I'm slow to trust whomever wants my money on the other side.

But pickin's are slim.

What is the best form of payment? As in, can you recover your money if you want it back? Paypal, Western Union.....what's best for the payor?

[montrel68]

The robotic replies are the scammer's stock copy/paste emails, all leading up to them asking you for cash to be sent via Western Union or moneygram.

There is only ONE vaguely safe way to pay for anything online: credit card.

With a credit card, you have the possibility of a refund via the chargeback procedure with your bank.

Debit cards do NOT have that kind of protection.

Western Union, moneygram, paypal, and bank transfer are the top 4 scammer friendly payment methods available.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

Paypal can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's paypal-linked bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal your money and disappear. No money in the scammer's paypal-linked bank account means absolutely no possibility of refund for you.

Your bank can only get your money back if there is money left in the scammer's bank account. Scammers know this and will immediately withdrawal the money you transferred. No money in the account means absolutely no possibility of you getting your hard-earned cash back.

Paper checks, certified checks and money orders can be cashed with a fake ID, so no way to get your money back that way either.

Again, only credit cards give you any protection at all. If a "company" doesn't take credit cards, they are probably not a real company.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

If you google "fake holiday renter Western Union", "fraud vacation apartment scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.

[raleah]

NEVER pay for Western Union - there is no way to ever get your money back and anyone with the MTCN number can pick up the money. You think you are sending to John Smith in Chicago but Jose Martinez in Peru or Ahmed Rashad in Egypt can pick up that money if he has the MTCN number and you have no way to find the person or get your money back

And Paypal is not a guarantee either - you are not protected on any real estate transactions - read the money back guarantee section on Paypal's user agreement
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/terms-outside
Section VII.3.iii.3 point #12

"# Specific item exclusions. Items or situations which fit any of the following exclusions are not eligible for protection under the Guarantee:

1. Items that have been damaged by the buyer
2. Apparel items that have been worn or washed
3. Media products such as DVDs, CDs, video and audio cassette tapes, video games and other software, etc.s
4. Stored value cards (e.g. phone cards, gift cards, etc.) of any kind
5. Hazardous materials, including but not limited to chemicals, explosives, flammables, poisons, and gases
6. Firearms, explosives, or ammunition of any sort including but not limited to guns, rifles, and bombs
7. Illegal/contraband goods
8. Animals, plants, or any parts thereof
9. Motorized vehicles of any kind, including but not limited to automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and airplanes
10. Recalled products
11. Consumables and perishables
12. Land, buildings, structures, or real estate properties, lots or improvements
13. Items weighing more than 70 pounds
14. Items that, when packed, exceed 130 inches in combined length and girth (the combined length and girth is length plus twice the height plus twice the width)"

If they are in your country the safest is to mail a check to the property's address and if the check clears, then you'll at least have their physical address and bank account number on the cancelled check if you need to get the police involved. And also make sure you speak to the people on the phone - do they sound like they are in the same country or overseas?

Unfortunately there is no way to be 100% certain as there are too many scams out there these days