More Ballito holiday accommodation scams

Public naiveté continues to fuel the booming holiday accommodation scam business.

Since reporting on accommodation scams targeting hotels and guest houses (‘Beware accommodation scams as holiday season nears’, Courier, October 24) this opportunistic cyber crime has continued to flourish, now preying on people seeking to rent private holiday homes for December.

Susan Naidoo of Ladysmith and Karen Rushton of Ballito both got taken for a ride when they responded to the same Gumtree advert for a holiday home at 21 Osborne Drive, Salt Rock.

They paid and lost deposits of up to R5000 to a couple calling themselves Estelle and Warren Serfontein, who claimed to own the house.

The actual owner, Brian Dickson, lives in Johannesburg and said he does not know the couple, nor did he give his consent for his home to be advertised for holiday accommodation.

Another couple going by the names of Don and Rita Jacobs, advertised a five bedroom Ballito holiday on OLX for only R2800 per day.

The real owner of the house in Adrienne Road, Rosa van der Merwe, also lives in Johannesburg and was lucky to have intercepted the advert before any deposits were paid.

Van der Merwe’s house is currently being advertised for sale on a property website and it is believed the scamsters lifted the pictures and information from there to create the OLX advert.

The Courier contacted the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) to find out more about these holiday accommodation scams and who to report them to.

The TBCSA runs a dedicated programme called the Tourism Safety Initiative (TSI) that tracks and collaborates with SAPS to investigate these cases and provides intelligence to the police and the tourism industry as a whole.

They also work with the police to ensure that fraudulent web-pages and adverts are removed.

TBCSA CEO and spokesperson for the TSI, Mmatšatši Ramawela, said these holiday scams are generally committed by small groups of people, ranging between one and five individuals, who make use of a very simple website which they create themselves.

“Cyber crime provides a sense of anonymity and it is easy to create an alias using false information,” he said.

The grammar and spelling mistakes indicates that these scam artists most likely do not have higher education.

They know South Africa is a major tourism destination and make use of this opportunity.

“The key to catching cyber criminals is to be a few steps ahead of them,” said Mmatšatši.

Although they have the advantage of anonymity, these criminals do not like to change their modus operandi (MO) especially if their current MO has been successful.

They are con artists who know how to convince individuals they are legitimate.

They use false information which allows them to get away with the crime and authorities are ultimately dealing with a ghost.

Red flags to look out for:

* The use of generic email accounts such as Yahoo, Live, Gmail and Hotmail.

* The advert may only have a individual’s name and mobile number as the main contact person. Most reputable companies have websites with land line numbers.

* The customer might be saliently or overtly pressured into paying a deposit to the “agent” because there is a waiting list and other tenants want the property.

* The company’s documentation (confirmation letters, invoices, etc.) is presented on unbranded stationery and the bank account into which the deposit must be paid does not match the company’s name.

* The price of the accommodation is very low.

* There are obvious spelling mistakes on the webpage.

* The address of the accommodation is not provided.

The first step is to report the case to the police and get a case number.

Secondly, the crime should be reported to the TSI using their website www.tourismsafety.co.za or call +27-861-874-911.

UPDATE: The Courier has been in contact with Gumtree who confirmed this afternoon that they have made contact with Susan Naidoo and passed her case on to the SAPS. The perpetrator’s email address, machine ID and IP address has been blocked from the Gumtree website.