Booking holidays outside of official sites has soared in popularity with the rise of Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree. These platforms are filled with people offering their homes to tourists, normally at slashed prices.
But sadly, every now and again, scammers use these sites to catch unsuspecting holidaymakers. This is exactly what happened to Natasha Shek, from Lingfield in Surrey, who now wants to warn other people against the risks.
She paid a £220 deposit to stay at a converted barn property to celebrate her mum's 60th birthday - but sadly lost the money after it turned out the Cornish venue didn't exist, reports Cornwall Live.
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The mum-of-two had booked for eight of her family and one dog to come away for four nights from next Friday (July 7). She found the idyllic looking home, advertised as being on Polmear Hill, in Par, on Facebook Marketplace and although skeptical at first - was given plenty of reassurance that it was all legitimate.
He even had telephone calls with her, sent her a booking confirmation, pictures of the property - and said he would arrange a birthday cake to be inside for their arrival. But in a cruel twist, he stopped responding to Natasha's messages just ten days before they were due to arrive and she soon discovered the property never even existed.
Natasha, 42, said: "I had put a search online and a Facebook Marketplace advert came up. I was a bit dubious but the guy messaged straight back. He sent me photos of the place and then he sent all the information and breakdown with details and said the website was in the middle of being made.
"I was skeptical and wanted some proof that he was genuine so he gave a utility bill with his name and address on it and then he said he would email with the information and bank account details. I spoke to him on the phone for 20 to 30 minutes and he just sounded really normal and nice.
"He even said his daughter could help sort a cake and put some bunting up and we'd already had one Airbnb cancel months ago because the owners sold the rental and he made a joke of it and said 'don't worry I'm not going to be selling'."
She said he gave absolutely no reason to suspect the rental would be anything but legitimate. He even went as far as to name his housekeeper in email correspondence - and explained there were no electric points in case they had electric cars.
"I then paid £220 deposit and the rest was to be paid on arrival," she continued. "Once I did the booking and chatted a little more I put it out of my mind and then a couple of weeks ago I messaged him to ask if he had managed to sort the cake for me."
She didn't get a response but thought perhaps he was busy or on holiday and didn't think much of it. After days of trying, the phone calls went straight to voicemail, emails were not replied to and the Facebook account name used to advertise the holiday let changed and before long she was blocked.
"Then I suddenly twigged," she said. "I felt so stupid and if I could change anything it would be Googling the address and his name first because nothing comes up.
"I then spent hours of detective work and saw the pub just down the road from it and randomly messaged them to see if they could help. Within ten minutes they got back to me and said the property doesn't exist and that someone who lives up the lane where it was supposed to be said this has happened before.
"So other families have turned up and said [his name] and had nowhere to do. He's getting away with it." She's fortunately found an alternative place to stay for her family so their weekend will go ahead as planned - but she suspects she won't be able to get the £220 deposit back due to it being paid by bank transfer.
"It's just about warning other people now about these scams and to be careful about what you're doing." she said. "I've never done anything like this before so it could happen to anyone."
