North Coast holiday rental scam artists strike again

As a bumper holiday season approaches for legitimate sectors of the tourism industry, so too does it for those operating fraudulently.

With the North Coast expecting to host thousands of holidaymakers this December and January, it is the perfect time for scam artists to strike.

Earlier this month, KwaDukuza resident Keren Maharaj and her family fell victim to one such scam.

“One of my friends saw an advertisement on Facebook for a four-bedroom home on Compensation Road in Ballito. It was being rented out by ‘Dolphins Holiday Rentals’ at R1 000 a night,” said Maharaj.

After contacting the company via Facebook, they began communicating over WhatsApp.

“To confirm our booking, we needed to pay a R500 deposit and were later asked to pay a refundable R500 breakage fee,” she said.

After paying the deposit, Maharaj said she became concerned when the company repeatedly tried to get her to pay more money.

She visited the home in question, which did not match photos she had been sent and again reached out.

“They said it was their business address, not the place we were staying. But when we spoke to people in the house, they said they had never heard of the company.”

The Courier confirmed with the homeowner that Maharaj had visited, that they were not doing holiday rentals and that they had never been contacted by the company.

Unfortunately, before she realised it was a scam, Maharaj had also passed the listing on to her parents who lost R2 500.

Neither have been refunded.

The Courier spoke to ‘David’ at ‘Dolphins Holiday Rentals’, but he put down the phone after our journalist identified himself and did not respond to queries.

The Maharaj family is one of hundreds that will fall victim to holiday scams around the country this festive season.

Umhlali Saps spokesperson, Captain Vinny Pillay, confirmed they had already received multiple fraud reports, with the number increasing every week.

“Unfortunately, many of these scammers will change banks and sim cards after successfully defrauding people. This makes tracking them down very difficult. The best way to avoid being scammed is to guard against it in the first place,” he said.

Some advice shared by local accommodation owners on what to look out for:

• Any listing that seems too good to be true, most likely will be.

• Compare prices against similar homes in the area to see what the market standard is at that time.

• If the accommodation has its own website or social media page, check for reviews.

• Always closely scrutinise photos to see whether they all match up. It is also worth running them through a reverse image search engine. If the photos turn up on other legitimate websites, then the listing is likely fake.

• Be wary if the advertisement specifies WhatsApp as the only contact method. Hosts should always be available to talk on the phone and communicate via email as well.

• Spelling errors and invoices which do not seem accurate often indicate fraudulent activity.

• On a reputable app, such as AirBnB, never agree to pay the hosts outside of the app. Some fake hosts might ask for a direct deposit for a security or cleaning fee. Always ask for payment to be made through the app.

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