Fighting Fraud: Vacation Rental Scams

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Looking for a holiday or vacation rental this fall and winter? Beware of the fake listing!

So here’s what can happen:

Although few and far between, there have been fake listings on websites like Airbnb.

Everything looks legit until you get there and the place doesn’t exist, or it exists but you have no reservation.

Some of these scams are run through fake websites, so make sure you’re paying attention to the url.

"First thing I must say it’s hard. It’s hard to protect yourself. The responsibility here is on the companies themselves to protect their end users by running different security solutions that will fight these scams, and that’s one of the things we actually do to protect these kinds of scams and we take them down," said Yoav Keren, CEO of BrandShield.

But how can you protect yourself, if a brand is compromised by a fake account or user?

Here’s what you can do.

Only book a pre-vetted home. On Airbnb, for example, they have verified users. Book one of those.

Check a host's profile. You can see if they have a government ID, address, and phone number. You can find this on the left side of their profile page.

It sounds obvious, but read reviews!

Make sure a listing isn’t too good to be true. If it’s a five bedroom penthouse in New York City for $100 dollars a night. It probably isn’t real.

And never pay in cash or Venmo.

Lastly, know your rights. if you are scammed make sure you know the refund policy with whatever company you went through.