Algarve holiday fraud: “If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam”

Algarve hit by scammers targeting luxury properties, as well as more habitual apartment lets

By Natasha Donn, Algarve Resident 

Fraud has moved up a notch in the Algarve holiday lettings sector. It is now targeting the top-end of the market, taking thousands of euros off unwitting families, and leaving them high and dry.

Carvoeiro property ‘mogul’ Erik de Vlieger – an investor/developer in the Algarve for many years – was surprised to find a family of Danes outside his luxurious property earlier this month, expecting to start a two-week holiday.

They had paid €6,000 through Booking.com, and were understandably devastated when they discovered that the money they had paid secured them nothing at all.

By dint of the fact that de Vlieger is in the property business, he tells us he made sure they had somewhere to go. But it is a far cry from the €4 million-plus property they had imagined themselves staying in.

Indeed, some of them are having to sleep on mattresses on the floor. “They had friends joining them,” explains de Vlieger.

This is just one example of what is happening as the world ‘moves online’ and people do not think enough.

As Erik de Vlieger stressed, “a property like mine in Carvoeiro, during July and August, would not be rented out for less than €6,000 or 7,000 a week. What they were seeing (what they thought they were seeing) was a ‘very good deal’. People need to use their brains a little more. If it is such a good deal, it is probably a scam …”

Active on social media, Erik de Vlieger took to social media to expose what had happened/what is happening elsewhere in the Algarve, in the hope that Booking.com might at least respond.

As we wrote this article, it hadn’t. Booking.com had not responded to Erik de Vlieger, it had not responded to the Resident’s own queries – and it was not acting on the ‘demand’ of another owner, stunned to find his Carvoeiro property advertised on the site for €5,141 for 11 nights.

The owners in question contacted Booking.com to insist that they remove the property from its listings. They apparently refused.

With the property also on the market for €4 million, the estate agency handling viewings says it has ‘no idea’ why Booking.com does not remove the property from its website. “The owner has explained everything. The listing has a number of errors.

For example, the location is also wrong, but he was told that Booking.com cannot remove the listing because it was placed by someone else” (that someone else almost certainly being the scammer…)

This particular listing carries the message to would-be clients “BEFORE ANY REQUEST, PLEASE CONTACT ME BY MAlL AT: quarteira11@gmx.com”.

The email address suggests Germany, but in reality, thanks to VPNs and modern technology, the scammer could be based anywhere.

Languages spoken are “English, Spanish and Polish”, thus there could be a clue there, but who is investigating?

Apparently, no-one: the estate agent says it is the owner’s responsibility to inform police, and as far as it knows, the owner has only contacted Booking.com which appears to have done nothing. The property remains on the website: other families may, or may not, fall into the same trap as the unfortunate Danes.

In the opinion of Erik de Vlieger, “Booking.com is 100% to blame” for these situations. The Dutch entrepreneur also considers it “very bad” that the company is not reacting in any way.

A quick online search, however, throws up a number of examples of similar frauds using Booking.com in which the company has not been seen to react adequately.

An article written last March by Which? reporter Trevor Baker identified some of the glaring failings of this “global behemoth”:

“It took less than 15 minutes to list a holiday home on Booking.com. We didn’t need to provide proof of who we were. And, unlike if you put your house on Expedia’s Vrbo – or on Airbnb the last time we tried –, there was no request to see a driving licence or passport.

This speed and convenience for owners (…) could be one of the reasons that so many people have been defrauded on the site.”

The heartening part of the Which? exposé is that it shows that Booking.com does refund people who have been defrauded if they (or some other entity acting for them) complain loudly enough.

As the article stresses: “In the summer of 2024, we searched Booking.com reviews for the word ‘scam’ and found hundreds of people from the past few months complaining that they’d paid for accommodation that didn’t exist.”

In other words, the Algarve is only one of many places targeted/at risk – while the spectre of ‘holiday lettings scams’ has always dogged Portugal, although not perhaps at such a high level.

How do scammers operate?

This is the crux of the problem: sites advertising properties, no matter how sophisticated their protections, run the risk of ‘techy bright sparks’ being able to ‘lift’ photographs/descriptions etc and take them onto completely unconnected websites, presenting them as bona fide holiday lets, waiting for customers.\

Which? has made a number of suggestions (clearly, up till now, not acted upon): “There are some basic things Booking.com must do to reduce fraud. Introduce identity checks for hosts before their listing can appear.

Actively monitor and investigate listings with multiple reviewers complaining that they’ve been scammed. Make it mandatory for all users of the site to have two-factor authentication set up.

While Booking.com told us that criminals can bypass this, it does make it harder for them.

Block all malicious links. Improve the training that it says it already provides for hotels and other hosts. As it stands, the security of Booking.com’s messaging system is only as strong as that of its weakest links.

Every time you book with Booking. com, it skims off around 15% for itself. That money – billions of dollars – should surely be enough to make it a much safer site.”

This is precisely what Erik de Vlieger thinks. Indeed, he told us he finds it “disgraceful” that a company that makes “hundreds of millions in profit” appears to have so little concern for people who trust in the brand and are left thousands of euros out of pocket.

GNR renews alerts over holiday lettings frauds

GNR police have renewed their alerts to people over frauds in holiday lettings, warning that the sure sign of a scam is a ‘lower price’ than one would normally expect for whatever is (supposedly) being offered. Their advice is as follows:

Be wary of offers that are significantly below market value or that appear to be overly advantageous compared to similar properties in the same area.

Compare similar listings and, whenever possible, request a viewing of the property. If the owner is reluctant to arrange a viewing, be cautious:

Visit the property in person, as the images shared may not correspond to reality:

Search for the property on several platforms, bearing in mind that it may be advertised in different places at different prices;

Be wary of requests for a deposit under the pretext that there are many interested parties – this may be a scam;

Check if there are other advertisements with the same photos or reports of associated scams;

Request additional photos, especially of the interior of the property;

Ask for the advertiser’s or owner’s ID and contact details, and confirm that they remain contactable;

Check at an ATM whether the bank account holder matches the name of the owner or advertiser;
If you receive a message indicating that the payment has not been received, check with your bank before making a new payment.

Anyone having queries/situations to report can contact: Lieutenant Colonel Cláudio Saraiva, from the Criminal Prevention and Human Rights Division of the GNR, on ++351 961 191 010.

Image: Carvoeiro property ‘mogul’ Erik de Vlieger – an investor/developer in the Algarve