I did some research before going on a 16 days%26#39; trip to France. For the part of Paris, I%26#39;ve booked a very reasonably-priced studio via a website I picked up on one of the forums. I have been looking forward to a lovely parisian-like stay in Paris and I trust that staying in rental accommodations would be much better than staying in hotels. But to my horror, when I arrived in Paris with my teenage son I couldn%26#39;t get through any of the phone numbers the other party has given me and had almost slept on park benches had it not been a relatively quiet season. We eventually managed to get booked in at a much much higher price.
When I was in Paris I still thought that I must have made some mistakes and worry about what the lady would think when we didn%26#39;t show up. But I started to have suspicions when I found that she had not for once contacted me via email nor anything. It must have been a fake rental right from the beginning.
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;But I started to have suspicions when I found that she had not for once contacted me via email nor anything. It must have been a fake rental right from the beginning%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
I%26#39;m curious...how did you arrange your financial and other pre-rental arrangements with the lady ??.....deposit payment, arrival information, etc ?
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When I made the reservation, the landlady asked me to wire money over but I refused. Not that I was smart enough, just that I was too busy with pre-vacation stuff. Since I would pass by Paris 10 days before my stay in that studio I requested that I would pay in full in cash before I started my 10 days%26#39; round France trip. She accepted my offer and emailed me her contacts.
What do you think about it?
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KDK,
To give you more details, the two telephone numbers she gave me, one is not a working number and the other belonged to a guy with a totally different name. With my limited French, I managed to understand that he said he had no idea about the name I gave him.
Then I tried to email the lady again but she have not replied ever since.
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Look at this thread.... is there any connection?
tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k91371…
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Thanks very much Discover about the report. I was really too careless about these alerts. That was quite similar to my experience apart from the fact that I was lucky not having lost any money.
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I gather that you did not actually give her money. At least I hope that was the case.
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Thank you, Holger. No, I did not give her any money. So it%26#39;s a free lesson learned and it%26#39;s also a good chance to educate my son about internet fraud.
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hi!
sorry for you experience but thanksfully you didnt send any money! when i wanted to rent an apartment through vrbo, i would ALWAYS ask the %26quot;owner%26quot; to give me their phone and ask (even if it was not true) if a friend living in ny could go and visit the place. if i had no news, then it would be a fraud for sure, as the first emails asking for simple infos were of course answered. btw i would never use paypal like many ask, because you will never see your money back then! paypal is not sure at all, ive heard so many stories of people giving money through a simple email, and paypal never gave back.
but for paris (or ny), i think website like lodgis.com are better, because they check the apartments, you can call lodgis, when you book for an apartment they send you all the infos of the owner, you can call him, you have the adress also, and some other infos. or i also prefer to go through apartments rented by a company, thats what i did in ny, if the company is reputable no pb, for ex in ny radio city apartments (thats not the one i took but just for an ex). also i found on vrbo there was much fraud, so the %26quot;companies%26quot; apartments seem to be a better choice, but maybe you dont have lots of them in paris like in ny (where there are many!).
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what was her name and what website did you find?
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;No, I did not give her any money. So it%26#39;s a free lesson learned and it%26#39;s also a good chance to educate my son about internet fraud.........When I made the reservation, the landlady asked me to wire money over but I refused. Not that I was smart enough, just that I was too busy with pre-vacation stuff. Since I would pass by Paris 10 days before my stay in that studio I requested that I would pay in full in cash before I started my 10 days%26#39; round France trip. She accepted my offer and emailed me her contacts. What do you think about it?%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
I%26#39;m beginning to think that while there may well have been a %26#39;..mis-communication..%26#39; on the part of one or both parties to the intended transaction----NO %26quot;..fraud..%26#39; actually took place. You never signed any sort of rental agreement....nor paid any reservation fee or rental deposit...nor met with this woman in person to finalize the terms of the rental...NO rental contract was ever transacted....so %26quot;..fraud..%26#39; simply couldn%26#39;t have taken place.....but serious mis-communication evidently did. This may certanly be unfortunate...but hardly culpable.
I can%26#39;t say the the practice is %26#39;..universal..%26#39; but just about EVERY private apartment rental that I%26#39;ve ever heard of REQUIRES / DEMANDS either a cash or credit card guaranteed deposit to hold the reservation. Since you neither met with this woman, nor signed a rental contract nor proffered any sort of rental deposit or payment....it doesn%26#39;t sound as if any agreement was in effect....though you may have b e l i e v e d there was.
If after failing to meet with her 10 days prior to your intended reservation date to complete the rental reservation transaction and pay the rental charge in full , one might assume that you made attempt(s) to contact her through either her return e-mail address?...or by telephone? When these attempts failed, what did you do? In the absence of any other contact on the matter, what could have made you even think that you had any sort of %26#39;..deal..%26#39; with this woman?...or that any sort of rental reservation was in effect prior to your arrival with your son ??
I%26#39;ll certainly grant that this woman may have treated you badly....but I can%26#39;t help but also think that if fault is to be allocated in this matter....you share a goodly portion of it....if for no other reason than not thinking the matter through....in spite of ALL of the %26#39;..signals..%26#39; and indicators that were SCREAMIN%26#39; (we%26#39;re talkin%26#39; flashin%26#39; red lights, bells, whistles and claxon horns blaring for an extended period of time) %26quot;..There%26#39;s something SERIOUSLY WRONG here...%26quot;.
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