10 Vrbo Scams to Watch Out For

Michelle Wilson - December 8, 2022

Like any other platform, many wonder if it is possible to get scammed on Vrbo. The rise of the digital era coincided with the rise of digital fraud. And the vacation rental industry is no exception. While the platform is extremely safe, it is not immune to scammers.

While Vrbo is well-established as an online travel agency (OTA), with careful measures to keep hosts and guests safe, fraudulent parties are becoming increasingly crafty, giving them new ways to take advantage of others. Therefore, although you can’t avoid scams, you can ensure you possess the knowledge to avoid them.

Fraudulent Hosts

Vrbo creators set the website up as an online accommodation platform that matches property hosts and owners with those looking for a place to stay on vacation. Since two parties are involved, scams may occur from either side of the transaction. Therefore, it is important to consider both sides when learning more about scams, starting with scams that vacationers will encounter.

1.  Phishing and Smishing Vrbo Scams

A phishing email is a bogus message sent by scammers to a potential guest. Similarly, smishing refers to fraudulent text messages or WhatsApp messages. Regardless of the medium, both scams try to make a guest believe they are interacting with a Vrbo property owner or manager.

As a type of online identity theft, criminals attempt to lure their victims to a malicious website, where they may give up confidential information like secure passwords. In other phishing scams, fraudulent parties may attempt to persuade their victims to wire money by tricking them into clicking on dangerous website links that may contain malicious software, such as computer viruses. To illustrate, consider an example. After booking a Vrbo vacation rental, you may receive an email pretending to be the Vrbo owner that encourages you to click on a link. After hitting that link, the website may ask you to provide your username, password, and payment details to verify your booking request. In other examples, if an email account is compromised, criminals may intercept guest bookings and payments without the knowledge of the host, causing visitors to lose money and hosts to lose bookings.

To identify a scam email, some things you might look out for include a poor command of the English language, including poor grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Alternatively, some have noticed that timelines given in an email include threats or ultimatums.

2.  Fake Property Listings Vrbo Scams

Another way fraudulent parties will scam vacation-goers is through a phony rental property listing. In some cases, criminals will make a fake listing with stolen photos to entice people to book their property. Then, once the travelers make the payment, they eventually realize the property doesn’t exist, and they are the victim of a scam.

It then becomes the onus of a traveler to review the property description and view the photos when booking. A general rule for any rental listing is that if it appears too good to be true, it is. If a property description seems hazy or impossible to believe, it could signify that a host is attempting to dupe you into booking a bogus property.

The photos of the property are another red flag. They could be low-quality, grainy photos or appear too good to be true. You may be dealing with a scammer if the photos do not appear genuine.

3.  Using an Alternate Payment Platform Vrbo Scams

Another common scam tactic is persuading a potential guest to make wire transfers outside the Vrbo platform. While on a fraudulent listing, a traveler may receive a prompt to leave Vrbo to make a deposit. Scammers do this because Vrbo’s payment setup is more secure, and hosts cannot immediately withdraw their money.

Therefore, if they can convince a traveler to “wire transfer” funds, they can receive immediate payment and have a higher chance that the transaction is irreversible. Once the scammer receives funds, travelers often get communications that there is bad news, such as the apartment flooding or similar actions that will make the property uninhabitable during the rental period.

4.  A Property Listing Riddled With Lies

It’s true having no reviews on a listing is risky, but travelers should also read the reviews that exist on a listing. The reviews may be fake if they use repetitive language or do not match up with the property descriptions.

For example, if the reviews mention a ski-side cabin or an apartment in Paris, but the Vrbo listing describes a home in the suburbs, you may be dealing with a fake review and a fraudulent listing. Therefore, even if the listing is real, it may be grossly exaggerated to ensure people are paying more for a property than it is worth.

5.  Forged Vacation Rental Listings

Another cautionary tale begins with brand-new rental listings. A new rental is a common ruse to account for the lack of reviews of a property or host. Therefore, travelers should always be cautious of brand-new vacation rental listings because it is much more difficult to conclude whether or not a listing is fake. There’s also the possibility that the listing is a forgery that slipped through Vrbo’s verification processes.

Fraudulent Guests

Scammers are not limited to hosts. It is also critical for hosts to safeguard themselves against potential fraudulent guests. Consider some of the most common scams that hosts will come across.

6.  Booking Refunds Vrbo Scams

On the guest side, a scammer may intentionally overpay for a booking and request a refund before their money clears, in addition to using counterfeit payments. They intend to trick a host into “sending them money back” before they realize their initial payment was a scam.

7.  Impersonation for Discounted Rates

Another scam hosts may encounter a guest posing as someone they are not, such as a celebrity or a member of the armed forces. Scammers do this to lull hosts into a false sense of security, often before asking for a discount or free stay due to their status.

8.  Faulty Payment

Another way a guest may attempt to scam a host is by using an untrusted payment type. Some examples include attempting to pay by certified check or unsecured wire transfer. These are risky payment methods because there is a greater chance that the checks are counterfeit or that they will reverse the transfer.

Scammers often use this scam to book a last-minute trip with less than 24 hours’ notice. Guests may attempt to stay at your Vrbo rental before they realize their payment was fraudulent.

9.  First-Time User Vrbo Scams

Accepting the guest’s booking is risky if you notice they are new to Vrbo. Scammers frequently create new accounts to prevent you from seeing if other hosts have posted negative reviews about them. Therefore, even if they plan to stay at your property, their intention might be to destroy it. In many cases, no reviews will exist since the Vrbo platform has already removed their previous scam accounts.

10. Missing Profile Details

A final scam to watch out for is a Vrbo profile containing only the bare minimum of information. In many cases, a lack of information could mean that the booking party is trying to hide something and is not trustworthy.

Support for Those Who Fall Victim to a Vrbo Scam

Fortunately, customers are protected from fraudulent listings by Vrbo’s “Book with Confidence Guarantee.” If a customer pays through the Vrbo site and the booking is a scam, the company will refund the customer and assist them in booking another vacation rental.

When hosts get scammed, things get tricky. Unfortunately, most scams a host becomes a victim of will occur away from the Vrbo site. Therefore, the best hosts can do is accept payments through the site and contact Vrbo immediately when they suspect a scam.