Holiday misery for the scam victims
Three weeks ago Natasha McDonald, her husband and three children were standing outside the villa in Puerto Banús, near Marbella in southern Spain that they had booked for 10 days at a cost of £1,600. But there was no sign of the owner, or the keys. The villa company website was down and, in despair, the family trudged off with their bags to a hotel for the night.
Only the next day did the McDonalds, from south London, discover they had fallen victim to a cruel scam in which crooks hijack the emails of villa owners who advertise through Owners Direct and its sister site, HomeAway.