4 ms·

This reminds me of the time I booked a vacation rental in Italy on Expedia and then realized it was a scam after looking through the confirmation email. The pho

This reminds me of the time I booked a vacation rental in Italy on Expedia and then realized it was a scam after looking through the confirmation email. The phone number wasn't Italian, and googling it resulted in finding forum posts about other vacation rental scams. Reading through the fine print, it became obvious that it was a wire fraud scam (wait until after the free cancellation deadline, then require a "deposit" via wire transfer, or cancel and lose 50% of the booking fee. Either way, the property doesn't exist.) I used one of the photos of the property's balcony to confirm that the venue couldn't possibly exist at the address on Google maps/Earth. A reverse image search didn't turn up much, but I was able to track down a distinctive cathedral tower in the background, then match other less unique background features to eventually find the real location of the balcony in the photo about 10 miles away in another town. I then tried to cancel the booking, and expedia's site glitched out. I had to call in to get the refund processed. I also emailed Expedia and several other similar sites with the same property listing, telling them about the scam and providing proof. Last I checked, the scam booking is still available to be made on Expedia and other sites.

bradly 6y ago
We have a couple of high-end vacation rentals and we are constantly trying to get fake listings taken down from all sorts of sites. What works best is usually emailing legal@website.com. Any sort of web form, even for fraud, just ends up being a black hole. The shadier sites that are purposely hosting fake listings themselves I contact legal@theirhostingprovider.com from their whois and I report them the FTC, although I have no idea if they ever follow up.
- judge2020 6y ago
  If they're using your photo you could even DMCA them, or their hosting company if they don't have a DMCA email/page.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Makes me think anyone that wants to put up adverts on a site like that should pay a deposit or posting costs upfront, as well as ID verification or something like that.
globular-toast 6y ago
That in turn reminds me of a challenge [0] that was set to find the filming location of a video somewhere in the rural US. It was made significantly easier because they were filming a solar eclipse, but still impressive how people can do this kind of thing when determined enough. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGqEBvlmFAQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGqEBvlmFAQ
- wolrah 6y ago
  If you like that, check this out: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d7eddj/4chan-does-first-good-thing-pulls-off-the-heist-of-the-century1 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d7eddj/4chan-does-first-g... Obviously I in no way support the politics of the people responsible for this, but from a pure "this is the power of a crapton of bored nerds with nothing better to do" standpoint it's both amazing and terrifying.
- dwd 6y ago
  Bellingcat (with a lot of crowd-sourced assistance) piecing together the various sightings of a Buk launcher in Eastern Ukraine believed responsible for shooting down of MH-17 and the likely location it launched from. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/01/27/is-this-the-launch-site-of-the-missile-that-shot-down-flight-mh17/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/01/27/is-... A lot of their investigative work is of this nature.

bradly 6y ago

We have a couple of high-end vacation rentals and we are constantly trying to get fake listings taken down from all sorts of sites. What works best is usually emailing legal@website.com. Any sort of web form, even for fraud, just ends up being a black hole. The shadier sites that are purposely hosting fake listings themselves I contact legal@theirhostingprovider.com from their whois and I report them the FTC, although I have no idea if they ever follow up.

judge2020 6y ago
If they're using your photo you could even DMCA them, or their hosting company if they don't have a DMCA email/page.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

Makes me think anyone that wants to put up adverts on a site like that should pay a deposit or posting costs upfront, as well as ID verification or something like that.

globular-toast 6y ago

That in turn reminds me of a challenge [0] that was set to find the filming location of a video somewhere in the rural US. It was made significantly easier because they were filming a solar eclipse, but still impressive how people can do this kind of thing when determined enough. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGqEBvlmFAQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGqEBvlmFAQ

wolrah 6y ago
If you like that, check this out: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d7eddj/4chan-does-first-good-thing-pulls-off-the-heist-of-the-century1 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d7eddj/4chan-does-first-g... Obviously I in no way support the politics of the people responsible for this, but from a pure "this is the power of a crapton of bored nerds with nothing better to do" standpoint it's both amazing and terrifying.
dwd 6y ago
Bellingcat (with a lot of crowd-sourced assistance) piecing together the various sightings of a Buk launcher in Eastern Ukraine believed responsible for shooting down of MH-17 and the likely location it launched from. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/01/27/is-this-the-launch-site-of-the-missile-that-shot-down-flight-mh17/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/01/27/is-... A lot of their investigative work is of this nature.