Villa rental website preying on bargain-hunting
A scam villa rental website preying on bargain-hunting holidaymakers has been shut down after pressure from The Independent.
The site, cycladesrentals.com, was the latest attempt at defrauding travellers using images taken from genuine websites. It claimed to have been “in the field of luxury tourist services for decades”, but was in fact set up last month.
The fraudsters had even set up a pay-per-click arrangement with Google for key words such as “Santorini villas”. When The Independent pointed out the attempted fraud to Google, the link ended.
The cyber-criminals boasted: “To build our collection, we searched for, visited, stayed at and evaluated dozens of properties, hand-picking stunning waterfront villas, focusing on luxury, privacy, quality and exclusivity.”