This is loosely related to the subject but I wanted to point out a scam that I was victim to and nearly lost more than a grand:. PayPal doesn't protect vacatio

This is loosely related to the subject but I wanted to point out a scam that I was victim to and nearly lost more than a grand:. PayPal doesn't protect vacation rental by owner scams. The reason that this was a close call rather than complete catastrophe was that I had the listing reviewed by the service's internal investigation team while I transacted. The team altered me of fraud, I responded immediately with PayPal to learn that hey guess what - their fraud claims policy excludes vacation rental services! They refused to help me. Further, the scammer knew this policy limitation, and even left me a troll voicemail as I was escalating the scam that was along the lines of "guess what? PayPal won't refund you!" Fortunately, I used a credit card for payment. I managed to file a claim with the credit card company and reverse the fraudulent charge. The reason I escalated this listing as a concern was that it had zero reviews and was new. The owner was also a bit too accommodative of my requests. I proceeded with caution. I went to the authorities about this, including the secret service, who for whatever reason handles fraud like this. I never heard back from anyone.