Cape Town - There are a number of procedures that you can follow that will protect you against a potential holiday scam, according to a credit bureau expert.
Michelle Dickens, managing director of TPN credit bureau, said that every December the media is a-buzz with stories of holiday makers who have been left homeless after discovering their perfect piece of holiday paradise was simply a scam.
READ: Protect yourself from holiday home scams
LIVE Q&A: See below for the live Twitter Q&A with Dickens and Fin24’s Matthew le Cordeur (starting at 15:00).
(If you have a question for Dickens, comment in the story below or tweet @Fin24 with the hashtag #AskTPN.)
Fin24's Matthew le Cordeur will ask questions about a case sent in by Rosa van der Merwe, whose holiday property was being scammed on a classifieds website.
"My property was advertised on OLX complete with photos and address by fraudsters to rent over the festive season," she said. "I have reported it to the Tourism Safety Initiative and they are gathering information regarding these scams."
"It is really a very scary experience as I do not know how many people are going to arrive at my doorstep in December," she said. "Hope we can make people aware!"
OLX marketing head Tamryn Combrink told Fin24 that these cases do increase over the festive period. “We do apply quite a substantial number of checks, but it’s not perfect,” she said. “We always recommend people to call before making bookings and especially before making deposits.”
Search your estate agent
According to Dickens, if you are dealing with an estate agent, you should ensure that they are registered with the Estate Agents Affairs Board.
This can be done by logging on to www.eeab.org.za to confirm if the estate agent in question has a valid fidelity fund certificate for the current year. It is also a good idea to do a search on the estate agents own website to see that they are in fact active within the area.
Live Twitter Q&A:
Tweets about "scams"
Search Google Earth
“I would also recommend doing a search of the actual property on Google Earth to validate that the actual property that you are about to rent corresponds with the pictures that you have seen on the website,” she said.
“Another preventative measure is to ask the estate agent or landlord to provide additional pictures of the property which were not in the original advert. Doing a Google search on the landlord or estate agent that you are in contact with might also yield useful information about any previous cases have been reported in the media.”
Most banks will allow you to perform an online account verification on the account name and number. “I strongly suggest approaching the bank to do an account verification before making payment to ensure that the person you are about to release money to, is in actual fact the person that you have been dealing with.”
Lastly, Michelle suggests doing a deed search on the property if it really seems to be high risk. “Doing a deed search is a good idea and this can be done through the government’s www.deeds.gov.za website,” said Dickens.
Top Q&A responses from Dicken:
@Fin24 #AskTPN Unfortunately if your property has been the victim of a holiday home scam you might not know until the "tenants" arrive
— TPN Michelle Dickens (@michelle_tpn) November 19, 2014
@Fin24 #AskTPN first step, the property owner should contact the website administrators to take the advert down - stop any more causualties
— TPN Michelle Dickens (@michelle_tpn) November 19, 2014
@Fin24 #AskTPN make contact with the landlord / agent and ask for additional contact information such as landline number and email address
— TPN Michelle Dickens (@michelle_tpn) November 19, 2014
@Fin24 #AskTPN when a landlord / agent only use cell phone number and free email addresses this should raise a flag
— TPN Michelle Dickens (@michelle_tpn) November 19, 2014