Carey Everett, of Fayetteville, has a Myrtle Beach condo that he takes advantage of when he can escape to the beach, but when he can't use it, he rents it out. He was caught off guard when he heard from his property management company about a year lease on his vacation rental.
"Are you leasing your property out to someone? And I'm like no," Everett said.
His property management company emailed him a year-long lease that spelled out the details.
Everett said, "They just needed the keys."
He is thankful his vacation management company reached out to him before moving forward. He says, "Once they gain access to the place, it is hard to get someone out. They could have cleared out everything, the property and everything else and then, you know, that's how squatters and everything else begins."
Despite Everett stopping scammers from getting access to his vacation rental, it hasn't stopped the scammers from posting his Myrtle Beach condo for rent. His condo was listed for rent on a popular rental listing website. Everett says he's not behind it, as he only posts on VRBO.
How to spot fake rental posts
On the fake listing, some red flags are the grammatical errors on the listing, plus it gives a specific phone number to call, telling potential renters not to contact through the website. Everett says these pictures posted on the scam listing, are old pictures that were once used.
The details on the property are also wrong, as the fake listing says 1 bed 1 bath, but it's actually 2 bedrooms, 1 and baths.
When ABC11 Troubleshooter Diane Wilson called the number listed on the posting, the number no longer works.
"I don't know how they piece everything together, but this could happen to anyone."
He now offers this advice to other property owners. "Make sure you check on your property or whoever you have monitoring your property because you can easily lose it and never have knowledge of it."
The Troubleshooter Takeaways for anyone looking to book a vacation rental is to pay attention to the details, don't get lured by too-good-to-be-true deals. A big red flag is strange payment requests, it's always best to pay directly through the booking website. Plus, remember paying with a credit card offers the best protection if anything goes wrong.
MORE TROUBLESHOOTER STORIES
Wake County homeowner's property sold and then listed for sale without her approval
Wake County homeowner finds land she owns listed for sale
Rental scam dupes Durham man out of thousands of dollars, gets him evicted from his home
Rental scam dupes Durham man out of thousands of dollars, gets him evicted from his home
Real estate scam weasels more than $30K from Durham man who thought he bought long-time dream
Protect yourself from hotel and airline points being stolen heading into summer
NC Attorney General sues MV Realty
Cary family out thousands of dollars after paying for rental home sight unseen