***Story originally aired Feb. 10, 2014***
A Vancouver couple’s dream honeymoon has been marred after a fraud artist impersonating a villa owner scammed them out of thousands of dollars.
Landis Warner and Geoff Graham, who are having their wedding in the Okanagan this summer, thought they had found the perfect honeymoon home on the popular vacation rental website VRBO.
"It had a pool. It was right by the lake. It was right by a winery. It was everything we could have dreamed about," said Warner.
They clicked on the link asking for more information and two days later received an email from a person claiming to be the owner of the property.
After a series of emails, the couple agreed to pay just under $2,000 to rent the villa. The person claiming to be the owner wanted the money wired to London, England, and they sent Warner and Graham a four-page rental contract.
But three weeks after it had all been confirmed and the money was sent, the actual owner of the property sent an email apologizing for having trouble with his email account and told the couple the dates they were requesting were not available.
It turns out the real owner's email had been hacked and the couple had wired $2,000 to an overseas scam artist. Their money was gone and they had nowhere to stay for their wedding night.
"Once we had booked the house, I felt we could finally relax and enjoy the planning and the getting ready for the wedding. Now we're back to square one on the house,” said Warner.
VRBO says Warner and Graham’s situation is a very rare case.
“The overwhelming majority -- 99.98 per cent of transactions -- on the site go through just fine without any sort of issues," said Jon Gray, vice-president of Home Away and VRBO.
VRBO says renters should always make phone contact with the homeowner before sending money. Warner and Graham say they couldn’t because the Okanagan villa listing had no phone number posted.
The company also warns renters to never wire moneyand only use secure transfer methods like a credit card or PayPal.
"There are a million other people like us out there that would book and not even think about it and hopefully if they see this and ask five more questions and save $2,000," said Warner.
The company did offer a partial refund to the couple, but only if they signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Otherwise, VRBO has distanced itself from this phishing scam, saying it's just the advertising medium for renters and owners and all it can do is educate both parties on how to protect themselves online. However, you can buy insurance on the VRBO site that will refund your money if you fall victim to a phishing scam.
