South Lake Tahoe vacationers are on discover after a number of “too good to be true” scams involving pretend trip rental listings on Craigslist had been rumbled.
Vacationers observed warning indicators round the luxurious vacation spot warning of the made-up listings.
“I used to be simply stunned to see a placard on the again of the home that mentioned ‘in the event you rented on Craigslist, you’ve been scammed.’ And in order that’s the gist of it,” Ryan Lundquist, who’s visiting the world, advised KCRA.
South Lake Tahoe is the most important metropolis across the lake, which is thought for its crystal-clear blue water and mountain views.
One trip rental agent advised of the tragic story involving a South African girl spending lavishly on her trip in useless.
“I’ve property again right here a few block behind the workplace. A neighbor referred to as at some point, and there was a younger woman sitting within the driveway in tears,” Michelle Benedict of Pinnacle Lake Tahoe Getaways mentioned.
“She had gotten a piece visa from South Africa and she or he paid somebody $10,000 for the summer time to lease a cabin that was a trip rental. We ended up calling the police they usually got here and helped her discover different lodging,” Benedict added.
She mentioned a lot of the scams come from Craigslist, an growing old discussion board web site the place customers can have a degree of anonymity.
Benedict says the scammer will snatch images and descriptions off trip rental listings and publish it themselves.
“Many of the scams come off of Craigslist. Somebody takes our images and our description and posts it on-line onto Craigslist,” she mentioned.
One of many purple flags patrons are suggested to look out for, Benedict mentioned, is that if trip itemizing sellers ask for non-protected money apps like Venmo. She really helpful verifying the legitimacy of the rental via town earlier than paying.
“The town of South Lake Tahoe maintains a database. You possibly can search to see whether or not it’s truly an actual trip rental,” Benedict mentioned.
Very low costs are additionally a purple flag, specialists mentioned. “If it appears too good to be true, it in all probability is,” they advised KCRA.
South Lake Tahoe is on the southern shore of the gorgeous lake, simply east of the Nevada border, in El Dorado County.
The town is about 100 miles southwest of Sacramento within the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The Publish has reached out to Airbnb and Craigslist for remark.
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