BRITISH holidaymakers are being conned out of millions of pounds in a fresh blitz of scams by an organised criminal gang who use fake websites to advertise dream villas.
Crooks steal photos from genuine rental websites showing luxury villas across Spain and advertise them at bargain prices to lure in unsuspecting Brits.
Holidaymakers hand over cash for the cut-price villas – believing they've found a bargain luxury holiday rental – only to discover it doesn't exist when they arrive.
Cops say more than 2,000 Brits have fallen prey to the scamming gang, which targets homes across Spain.
Once fake sites are identified and shut down, the fraudsters have new ones ready to take their place – an endless cycle almost impossible for cops to police.
Some victims have lost as much as £40,000 in the sophisticated scam with 1,632 victims in 2017 alone, according to Action Fraud.
And it's feared more Brits will fall victim this summer, with millions heading to the Costa Del Sol and Spanish islands including Majorca for bargain sun breaks.
'ALL MY NIGHTMARES CAME TRUE'
Dad Angus Kennedy, 54, revealed to the Sun Online how he lost £5,000 after being conned over the Easter holidays.
His wife Sophie, 43, booked a stunning seven-bed villa for £2,600-a-week for a surprise Easter break in Majorca – unknowingly using fake website dreamvillasspain.com.
But the dream turned into a nightmare when the dad-of-five and his family, from Maidstone, Kent, arrived at Palma Airport and realised they had been hoodwinked.
Chocolate expert and author Angus said: “My wife wanted the holiday to be a surprise for the family as I was working so hard.
“We were promised an airport pick-up that did not turn up. Straight away I had a bad feeling.
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“And all my nightmares came true. I phoned this so-called contact number for the website and got a recorded message saying, ‘Call later’.
“Then I realised we had been scammed."
Angus came across a taxi driver who knew the villa owner's son, so offered to take them to the property.
He said: "The seven of us headed up there and knocked on the door. When we arrived I thought, ‘there is no way this is going to be £350 a night’. It was massive.
“I said, ‘We are here for the holiday’. The owner said, ‘What holiday?’ He was unaware his house was being swindled.
“We just sat on the wall of his house. My wife burst into tears.”
Angus and his family were forced to shell out for alternative accommodation after being left homeless and sitting on a beach with their luggage.
They had paid around £2,600 for a week at the villa – working out at £350 a night or £50 per night per person, plus fees – and were forced to spend a further £2,500 trying to book accommodation for the rest of the trip.
The owner of the luxury pad, a German man who has lived there for 17 years, today confirmed it was a scam and told Sun Online the house was not up for rent.
He said: "This is a scam. It is not authorised. [These sites] are criminals, for sure."
After Angus posted a video online to highlight his plight, a flood of victims contacted him saying they too been scammed by the same site – which lists more than 700 villas.
Angus said: “It’s turned into this alarming story. I am getting emails from people all the time saying, ‘This has happened to me. I have been scammed’.
“I had a grandad who had booked a villa for £5,000 for his grandchildren for a present. He is quite a proud guy and he was in tears.
“The thought of any more seven-year-olds coming on holiday and finding they have nowhere to stay is horrible.
“The site has been live for two years. It is a global set-up. People in Majorca were so amazing, and we have had offers of free villas, but this was a holiday from hell.”
SWINDLED BY SCAMMERS
Another British victim conned by the same website told Sun Online her family lost £5,000 after renting a villa in Alicante.
Petra Deleslie, 42, and her extended family of 18, from Sittingbourne, Kent had booked the villa for a month in September after losing mum Gwen to lung cancer a few years ago. They paid up front in full because of an advertised saving of £1,000.
But, after hearing Angus' story, she realised they too had been scammed. She emailed the site to demand her money back but has heard nothing since.
It is disgusting they do it and have no fears and concerns about children and families being affected
The NHS practitioner said: "It is sickening and quite upsetting. People had booked flights. It is just anger and frustration.
"It takes a long time to save that kind of money and then for it to be swindled in a second is gut-wrenching.
"We thought it was genuine because it was on two sites. We had looked up places, we thought we were pretty safe.
"I rang my bank and they said 'until you can prove it is a scam there is nothing we can do'."
Another victim, British pensioner Ann, from East Anglia, was conned out of £4,600 booking a Majorca break for her and her grandchildren in 2017.
The 76-year-old transferred her money into a UK bank account, but became suspicious when the gang asked her to send the cash to a different account.
She said: “It is disgusting they do it and have no fears and concerns about children and families being affected.
“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
HOW YOU CAN AVOID BEING SCAMMED ON HOLS
The City of London Police, ABTA and Get Safe Online have published the following advice on how to avoid becoming a victim of holiday booking fraud:
• Stay safe online: Check the web address is legitimate and has not been altered by slight changes to a domain name – such as going from .co.uk to .org
• Do your research: Don’t just rely on one review – do a thorough online search to check the company’s credentials
• Look for the logo: Check whether the company is a member of a recognised trade body such as ABTA. If you have any doubts, you can verify membership of ABTA online, at www.abta.com
• Pay safe: Wherever possible, pay by credit card and be wary about paying directly into a private individual’s bank account
• Check documentation: You should study terms and conditions and be very wary of any companies that don’t provide any at all. When booking through a Holiday Club or Timeshare, get the contract thoroughly vetted by a solicitor before signing up
• Use your instincts: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is
• Report it: Victims should contact Action Fraud via www.actionfraud.police.uk
• Get free expert advice: For further advice on how to stay safe when booking or researching travel online, go to https://www.getsafeonline.org/shopping-banking/holiday-and-travel-booking/
Last year, The Sun also reported how the tricksters stole photos of a £20million villa owned by a descendent of the Duke of Wellington to advertise on fake rental website www.premierholidaybooking.com. That site has now been shut down.
It is estimated fraudsters stole £6.7million from 4,700 holidaymakers in 2017 alone. The figures for 2018 are due to be released next month.
But it’s not just holidaymakers who are the victims. Villa owners, and honest rental property agents are being stung, too.
One genuine rental business owner, Clare Taylor, 44, has 12 years experience in Majorca.
Clare, who owns Keys & Concierge, says the scammers have been operating for several years, and she can see five of her properties on fake sites this year, with listings on dreamvillasspain.com, including her own personal villa.
She said: “These sites have never gone away and it is not going to stop any time soon.
“This started three or four years ago, I tried to expose them, but they were never shut down.
“I asked these scammers to take my villa off and they said, ‘Send us the proof that it is yours.’
“The site was very good, it would have fooled me. They have got directions and reviews from guests who have stayed there.
They are getting away with millions and laughing all the way to the bank
“I wrote to them and said, ‘It is a shame you are a scammer, because your site is very good’. I contacted Action Fraud and gave them all the information.”
Ethical agents have teamed up to battle the scammers, and are planning to use the hashtag #rentavillainmallorca to guide holidaymakers away from fraud websites.
But Clare is adamant it is so difficult to police that it "will definitely happen again this year”.
She said: “If my phone rings early on a Saturday and it is a number from England, I know it is somebody that has been scammed.
“It’s happening to people from all walks of life. This is people with real lives. Heartbreaking stuff. I had one lady who had just had a double mastectomy.
“I had one elderly lady who had put paid for the trip for all of her family and her grandchildren. They had been scammed.
“And they are getting away with millions. They are just laughing. They don’t feel threatened at all.
“The police are not doing anything about it. As soon as a site gets shut down, they have three or four more ready to go.
“This is big money. It’s the equivalent of a heist or robbing a bank. If it was a bank, would Action Fraud be doing nothing about it?”
Head of Action Fraud, Pauline Smith, said the impact of the holiday scams was so severe hundreds of victims needed medical attention or were at risk of bankruptcy.
Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA, said: “ABTA sees at first-hand the damage caused by travel fraudsters with the many devastated customers who contact us for advice after they find out their much anticipated holiday or trip to visit loved ones may not actually exist.
“The cost to them is not just financial; this crime causes very real disappointment and emotional distress. However this does not need to happen.
“Check and follow the tips and advice on abta.com and you will not fall victim to these unscrupulous individuals.
“But if you are unlucky enough to do so, always report it to Action Fraud so that they can put these crooks out of business.”
The Sun Online has contacted dreamvillasspain.com, operated by Digital Dreams SL, for comment but has received no response. We have also contacted Met Police for comment.
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