Vacation home rental scams on the rise in South Lake Tahoe

Imagine getting a group of 19 of your closest friends together to rent a large and high end vacation home in South Lake Tahoe for a ski week over the holidays, just steps from Heavenly Mountain Resort. You've found the right place, and for $8,000 for the week, it's yours. The inside elevator will take you and all of your buddies up into three floors of bedrooms, a pool table, hot tub, chef's dream of a kitchen and several living rooms and fire places. You leave San Diego for the ten hour ride to Tahoe. You're tired and you go right to the vacation home per the instructions received in an email. You knock on the door and find a group of 17 people already checked in and staying in the home. You think the home has been double booked but there is nobody for you to call. The people in the home let you call their property manager. You are in a rage. She tells you that no, she doesn't know who you are, the home isn't double booked and that her paying customers are already staying in the home. You call the police because you don't believe her.

You've been duped and are out $8,000.

This scene is just one of several that took place in South Lake Tahoe over the last few weeks.

Exactly one year ago today, South Tahoe Now wrote of vacation rental scams on the south shore. During the holidays weeks of Christmas and the New Year that year there were just five scams. This year, there were 30.

"This is an epidemic," said Robert Leach who is the real estate fraud criminal investigator for the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

"The best way to stop the fraud is not to rent a home on craigslist," said Leach. "Don't send money to people you don’t know. Mail payment only to a company with a physical address."

The homes that are being rented fraudulently are usually actual vacation rentals at the lake, but the scammers who are taking money don't have anything to do with legitimate renting of the homes.

Leach said that it is nearly impossible to stop the scammers as they are relentless in posting fake listings on craigslist. The on-line classified advertisement bulletin board company has worked with law enforcement agencies by removing the fake listings as soon as they are found.

"Craigslist is taking down five to ten ads a day for us," said Leach.

In all of the cases he is working on, Leach says the scammer(s) used the actual photos and listing information from the legitimate listings found on VRBO, AirBNB and other professional vacation home rental sites.

When the victims contact the craigslist ad with the fake listing, they get what looks like an official reply, complete with rental forms, photos, procedures and bank account numbers where the deposit needs to be wired into.

Even for the more savvy renter, the transaction looks real. They will look the home up on property tax reports, check things out, but the scammer always seem to have the right answers when these curious renters have questions.

"They will get an answer like 'I just bought the home so the title may not be recorded yet,' or 'The home is in my business partner's name'," said Leach. Many times the fake listings will have much lower prices that its legitimate counterpart.

"A lot of people ask the right questions, look into ownership, but the scammers always have the right excuses and answers about ownership," said Leach. "It hooks the renter in even further."

"People get hooked in because the prices are lower, its enticing," Leach told South Tahoe Now. "If its too good to be true, it probably is."

The best way to get rid of the scammers is by education, according to Leach.

"Do not rent a vacation home on craigslist," he repeated.

Leach said the DA's office is going to create a community outreach campaign to show in Southern California and the Bay Area to inform the public about the growing problem of vacation rental scams in Lake Tahoe.

The problem isn't just a Tahoe problem. Leach said all tourist attractions in California are seeing an increase in vacation rental scams, including Yosemite.

Leach will investigate all fraudulent transactions. He gets the copies of emails between the renter and the scammer, as well as all bank information used to exchange funds. The process of trying to put a stop to the scammers is a long one though as all bank account record requests require a subpoena as do requests from internet companies for email address information.

The "bad" guys will open and close bank accounts with major banks such as Chase and Bank of America according to Leach. Once the investigators gain access to an account they are usually closed and no identification of the person who opened the account is documented.

"We are going to as the Attorney General's office to offer a solution to no identification being scanned at banks," said Leach. As it is now, the bank clerk will look at a person's ID to match the names with the application, but no photos are normally scanned and kept with the account.

"I am optimistic that we are getting closer to catching them," he said of the scammers.

The problem for his department is that those committing the crime are not local and are most likely not even in America. Leach traced one person recently through a New York internet service that was subcontracted out to a Colorado company, but the criminal;s computer was in Australia.

There are several things the public can do to make sure they are not caught up in the scam when renting a house in Lake Tahoe:

Do not use craigslist. Use a legitimate rental company or rental sites such as VRBO, Vacasa, Home Away or AirBnB only.

Use only credit cards. If you send a personal check, only mail it to the physical address of a vacation rental company. Don't take the word of the person renting the house for their address, google it and make sure they are legitimate. Do not use cash. Paypal has refunded some of the victims their money in recent cases but this isn't always the case.

Most rental companies will ask that you check in at their office prior to going to the home. Question the transaction if they just tell you to go to the home.

If you suspect the potential transaction may be a scam, ask for a call back phone number, get their bank account number, email address and call local law enforcement.

In the case of the group from San Diego, the vacation home management company who takes care of the property helped them find lodging, which wasn't easy on New Year's Eve. Several of her homes were targeted over the holidays, mainly because her homes are on the high end, thus getting more money for the scammers. She's had to update her website almost weekly because the fraudulent people copy her home descriptions word for word, and they copy all the pictures.