Vacation Home Email Scam from Mr. Francis Basil

This vacation rental email inquiry has been reported to be a scam:
"My Name is Mr Francis Basil,am the director of Hydrotech Consult Ltd United Kingdom, we have a group of Six delegates that are attending a training seminar in Costa Rica. Please let us know if you have accommodation for our member for the date of 20th till the 30th June." 
Mr. Francis Basil posted this phone number in one of his emails: +44 703190397

 

I got this inquiry also but for different dates if July 20 - Aug 4, identical but for a Costa Rica rental.  Have replied but no response as of yet.  Will let all know how it turns out.  But suspected it right away, too much detail.  Usually a first inquiry is much more general I have found.  Thanks

I have received an email from Mr. Francis Basil requesting rental of our villa in Costa Rica.  He says he will send us a cashier's check for half the rent in advance but also will send us $5000 extra for us to forward to a transportation company.  It seems fishy to me but I will gladly cash his check.  What can he hope to gain as long as I wait until his check clears?

 

 

 

Here is how the scam works. You are sent a check, you bring to a bank and they will allow you to deposit and will even in mosst cases cash for the full amount within 10 days, but BIG but...The check being an international check will actually take weeks to clear.  Mr. Basil will request the cash/Money Order/or Certified check for a portion of the money.  Then you will find out from your bank here usually months later that the check is fraudulent.  And the bank will want all 5K back.

It is an old scam and if you try and look up anything about his so called company you wont find anything, next too many people have been contacted for the same thing.  Think about it the three of us ALONE, that to me means about 30 people been contacted.

Best of luck to you,

Rick

So basically, someone will be staying for free? Ouch. That's nasty. Is there any way of knowing if someone's going to scam you or not? Like, a certain payment method they always use? 

The profit of the scam is not to get a free vacation rental stay, but to persuade the home owner to send money back to the renter after he/she purposely sends the owner a bigger check than the rental amount (the fact is that a check takes several days to clear even though it may show as a regular deposit into your account, making the owner believe that there is nothing wrong with the check).