It's been happening for years, but Arantxa Goenaga of the AF Legis law firm says that holiday rental scams have been increasing. "The more demand there is, the higher the rates of fraud."
The pandemic acted as a boost for holiday rentals, stand-alone properties in particular, but Goenaga points out that scams are now far above the level before the pandemic.
The pattern of the fraud is often the same. People are redirected to fraudulent websites from the likes of Booking and Airbnb. They pay for their reservation in advance and and don't realise they have been victims of a scam until they reach their destination.
This clearly isn't just an issue in Mallorca and the Balearics, but the islands are among the most vulnerable destinations because of the scale of the demand.
An example is the experience of Muriel Breier from Germany. She and two companions paid 3,000 euros to reserve a luxury apartment in Palmanova this summer. To this amount was added a 650 euro deposit for possible damage. In their case, they realised the scam before leaving Germany after all communication with the supposed agency was suspiciously cut off. It was too late because the payment had already been made, although they were spared the bad experience of finding out about the scam once they arrived in Mallorca.
Muriel explains that everything had appeared very professional. The dealings, prior to the realisation that it was a scam, were courteous and like that of "a serious company". There is very little chance that they will get their money back. "The police have told us that there isn't much hope."
Arantxa Goenaga advises that advance payments should be avoided as much as possible. "The easiest way to avoid a scam is not to make an advance payment." People should try and verify as much information as possible about the property. There can be warning signs. Suspicious websites, unbelievable offers or excuses for not showing the property in which people are interested.
The manager of the Habtur holiday rentals association in the Balearics, Maria Gibert, says that her association periodically comes across fraudulent websites. These are reported to the tourism ministry, the Council of Mallorca's tourism department and the National Police. Scammers typically operate, she points out, by using photos of legitimate properties taken from sites such as Booking.
And this is how scams have long been operating.