Con Man Caught - Yorkshire etc

[_monet208]

I posted in May details of a con man-our first in 9 years a gentleman with a distintive gold upper tooth.
It apears from an email I received he has also been been active in the west country.

Today I received a telephone call from the police in Keighley saying that based on the forensic evidence collectd here, he has been caught,admitted a string of offences and is likely to be off the scene for some time

So well done to the police for taking the trouble to send a full forensic team out and catch the guy !:d/ :d/

[Schofields]

Although it’s rare, accommodation providers do get targeted by fraudsters and it’s great news to hear the culprit has been apprehended.

There was a recent case where a guy renting a holiday cottage decided to ‘help himself’ to several items. He booked with a fake credit card, under a false name, so it was intentional theft.

It’s important to validate that cottage renters are who they say they are. Sending directions by post is one way. What do others do?

[dianefenoulhet]

Just been reading other posts about conmen and guests you would not want back. I have only been open since July and already had a woman and couple I would not want back. How about a centralised (free) blacklist? An owner could then make an informed decision about accepting a guest rather than wait for the unwelcome aftermath after they have left. At the moment if a single person books their name is googled.

[greenbarncottages]

Although it’s rare, accommodation providers do get targeted by fraudsters

Rare as in weekly? Not quite the same thing, but we all get inundated with scam enquiries which would lead to being defrauded of significant amounts of money if we fell for them. It's difficult to imagine that there isn't a cottage owner with some sort of internet presence who hasn't had an enquiry from someone representing a group of newly ordained Greek priests; interestingly I know of an owner in Greece who had exactly the same type of enquiry, but it was for Polish priests, so there is a degree of intelligence behind the scams.

We get hardened to the scams through experience and a healthy degree of cynicism - enquiries starting "dear friend", vague on dates, poor English and so it goes on. There are plenty of weapons available - not least googling the name alongside the word scam, which will often turn up a previous experience from someone. Of course, the scammers change their names and email addresses frequently; generally the email addresses are either Yahoo or Hotmail, although there are obviously many genuine enquirers using those mail accounts. A check on the originating ISP address can be useful - if it's Nigeria or Sierra Leone, then it's very likely a scam.

Basically, if it smells suspicious, proceed with caution or not at all - better simply to delete the email than answer it and confirm your existence for future scams. If you proceed, the scam will develop typically along the lines of payment being sent for extra services which you are asked to pass on to someone else. You check your account, the money's there, you make a payment to a third party. Some weeks later the amount that originally appeared in your bank account is removed by the bank when the foreign cheque bounces - that's how long it can take to clear. You've paid a third party from your own pocket rather than from funds that never really existed. Ouch. If the payment is made on a credit card, that card will be cloned or stolen.

Hence as soon as an enquiry develops along the lines of excess payment, it's time to pull out.