Actually, moderator Collien-Ulmen Fernandes just wanted to book a relaxing holiday on Mallorca. A spontaneous break, a few days in the sun with the whole family, lying on the beach and enjoying the sound of the sea. So she chose a beautiful finca on the Spanish holiday island. But instead of getting on the plane to Mallorca, the actress and wife of entertainer Christian Ulmen found herself with the police. Because the finca where they wanted to spend their vacation doesn’t exist, as the moderator reports on the RTL program “Stern TV am Sonntag”.
It’s a prominent example of what’s happening more and more often when people book their travel online: they fall victim to internet scammers. But as a consumer, how can I tell if the listing is real accommodation? And what to do if you suspect that you have been taken in by a scam? We answer the most important questions at a glance.
Most of the time, the scammers offer accommodation or vacation packages that don’t exist. They share the advertisements either on common social media channels or on well-known booking platforms. If you click on the offer link, you will end up on a homepage that often makes a serious impression at first glance.
This is exactly how Collien Ulmen-Fernandes landed on the website “www.mallorca-in-sicht.com”. Both the advertisement and the entire structure of the homepage as well as the booking process seemed serious, as she explains. There was an imprint, the landlady could be found on Google and a rental agreement was drawn up. “I never had a bad feeling,” says the moderator.
The internet is the perfect place for scammers to protect their identities. Nowadays it is not always easy to distinguish a fictitious offer from a real one – but it is not impossible either. Consumers should pay particular attention to the red flags when booking holidays. The following signs should at least be a reason for caution:
But even if you heed all these warning signs, it is possible in rare cases that instead of the booked accommodation at the holiday destination, you end up finding only a yawning emptiness. Ulmen-Fernandes had also informed himself in advance about the tricks used by Internet scammers. The providers would then have given her the feeling with a lively exchange of emails and a serious-looking rental agreement that it was a real offer. The moderator thought it was a stroke of luck – because in the high season it is difficult to spontaneously find available accommodation in Mallorca.
And because the actress felt so safe, after two weeks she decided to transfer a down payment for the finca on Mallorca to the provider. At first glance, this is a common practice, but with a small mistake that, according to consumer protection, you should not make when booking a trip. He advises consumers to pay the deposit by credit card or PayPal so that the payment can be reversed in case of doubt.
It can also help to take a closer look at providers who meet one or more red flags (see above) and to find out about the existence of the relevant companies on common industry portals. For accommodation, for example, you can check “TrustedShops” to see whether the seal of approval has been awarded. If you want to check an airline for seriousness (here, too, cases of fraud occur again and again), you can do so on the website of the Federal Aviation Authority. But the whole thing also works the other way around: All websites that are currently suspected of being fraudulent are listed on the “Watchlist-internet” website.
After the deposit was transferred, something changed in the communication between Collien Ulmen-Fernandes and the landlady of her finca on Mallorca. Questions were not answered, there was no information about the address of the accommodation or the arrival formalities.
That made her suspicious, she started researching – and found several websites with the same landlady in the imprint. When asked about the alleged fraud, nothing more came from the provider. Since then there has been radio silence – and helplessness in the Ulmen house: “We wanted to report it, but didn’t know where at first,” says the presenter in the Stern TV report.
Anyone caught up in an online scam should take legal action as soon as possible. On the one hand, it is about asking the bank or the credit card company whether the amount paid can be recovered. Payment providers such as PayPal or some credit card companies have corresponding buyer protection included, but this is likely to be more difficult, especially for financial institutions.
The second way in this case should be to go to the police. There you can file a criminal complaint for fraud. In the best case, the suspicion can be proven by correspondence and the advertisement. Alternatively – or in addition – you can also contact consumer protection with your concerns. He will then take up the individual case and define the legal framework of the possibilities.
Sources: Stern TV am Sonntag, consumer advice center, Federal Office for Information Security, watch list Internet
