“The apartment is rented for short/long term and the transaction will be done by Airbnb, as I am not in town. We will use Airbnb only for the booking, for the safety of both parties. To book the rental apartment, you will need to make the booking payment to Airbnb’s bank account through the bank. Airbnb will hold your payment (the first month and the deposit) until you have received the keys, the contract and have seen the apartment. After you have seen it, you will have to make a decision: in case you don’t want it, the booking payment will be returned to your account instantly; if you want it, I will receive the money only after you have seen the apartment. If you accept, I will invite you through Airbnb. There you will find, at the end of the reservation, all the details to complete the payment. For each booking invitation I send, I pay 50 euros, so send me the details only if you really want to book now. We do the empadronamiento and traditional contract for as long as you want.”
Valerie is just one of dozens of people trying to scam you with rentals that do not exist on Ibiza. She does it with publications of the supposed rental housing on social networks and, in this case, she rents an apartment in calle Abad i Lasierra for 650 euros per month plus a month’s deposit. However, the Airbnb platform is only for holiday rentals and, in no case, is responsible for formalizing a contract.
As explained by police officer and team leader in the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) of Ibiza, Fernando Luis Suarez, the scams related to the rental of housing “have grown by 25%” in the first six months of the year compared to the same period of 2021, months marked by covid. “With the pandemic we saw an increase in this situation because most of the arrangements were made online and that’s where the problem has come from,” he points out.
Various types of rental scams
In this sense, the head of the UDEV points out that they encounter various situations. “There are people who offer an apartment that does not exist, people who try to rent an apartment that does exist, but that is not theirs or, even, who make rentals to different people and, when they arrive, none can enter because they are fraudulent contracts or who cannot enter the property because there are already people residing there”, he emphasizes.
What they have found at the police station is that “people who scam do it with different apartments”, they never repeat the same property in their ads.
From the complaint by the person scammed, the agents try to locate the perpetrators, but “they can not always be identified,” says Suarez. “We try to reach them through a telephone, email…. If they are on the island we arrest them and if not, we put out a search for them so that they can be arrested elsewhere,” he adds. In the case of being able to arrest them, they are taken to court. “ On many occasions they declare themselves insolvent and it is difficult for them to face the responsibility”, says the officer, who adds that “if it is criminal, many times it is not much because the methodology is to try not to defraud more than 400 euros, making it a misdemeanor. And, if it is more, between the trial, you have to locate the injured party, who sometimes cannot appear, the case may be archived and there is no conviction”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.