August the 16th, 2023 – Criminals, including scammers from Serbia, have been busy making a quick buck by posing as Makarska renters and cheating would-be tourists out of their hard-earned cash.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, there’s now a new blacklist of ”Makarska renters” published, it contains the fake names of ”owners” of apartments to whom payments have been made. Of course, these payments have been made by victims of scams for stays in accommodation which doesn’t exist. In some cases, the accommodation units do exist, but these duped tourists haven’t been communicating with or paying the actual owner. These poor individuals sometimes drive for hours from abroad to the Makarska Riviera, only to realise that they have been cheated.
Five such crimes have already been registered by the Makarska police force
Before paying for their stay, guests are being advised to first contact the local tourist board to check whether their accommodation unit really exists. According to what the Split-Dalmatia Police Department has said to Slobodna Dalmacija, the Makarska police have registered five such crimes this year alone.
People should pay close and careful attention to which advertisements and websites they use to find their accommodation and to check whether there are user reviews for a particular apartment or house.
Duje Lozina, the director of the Drvenik Tourist Board, was actually a victim of fraudsters posing as Makarska renters himself. “Recently, a woman from Serbia was renting accommodation in Drvenik, but she stole a photo of my apartments. These scammers are mostly from Serbia, but now luckily there are blacklists, so guests are better informed. Last year, fraudsters robbed nine guests who had paid for their stay during prime time, and the worst part is that they came with five children, so it was absolute chaos,” concluded Lozina.
