Visitors pay in advance, come to the address, but there is nothing there.
There is an increasing number of cases of fraud related to rental of non-existent apartments mostly on the Adriatic Sea, reports dnevnik.hr on 23 July 2017.
Cheaters place advertisements mostly on the internet, on well-known social networks and specialised websites, and then, after tourists pay the advance fee, they disappear and are nowhere to be found.
Usually, it looks like this: Visitors come to the agreed address and then realise there is no actual apartment there. There is literally nothing. And when they try to call the agent, there is no answer. The money has already been paid, and they realise they have been deceived. The holiday turns into a nightmare.
The Istria Police Administration has received several reports of such fraud cases just this week, mainly in the areas of Umag and Poreč, on Istria’s western coast. A cheater from Umag has been arrested and could now be sentenced to anywhere between six months and five years behind bars.
Tourists admit that nowadays you can never be too cautious.
“I always review guest ratings, and I only consider those websites which have insurance and which take responsibility for possible problems,” says Mark from England.
Still, fraudsters can quite imaginative.
“We have two types of such problems. One is if guests come to an accommodation facility which does not exist, and the other is when they come to an accommodation facility which does not have a contract with the particular website or agent,” explains Boris Žgomba, president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies.
Translated from dnevnik.hr.
