We responded to a Vacation Rentals By Owner VRBO #320991 via email for a Florida luxury beach house for a family vacation. Dan Ursu contacted us by email and offered the house for less rent than the website showed, but we were to wire transfer the money within 72 hours to a London Barclay bank account. Only then would he provide the 'property access data' and name of the local contact. Being suspicious of this demand for all the rental fee up front to be wired to England, I contacted the Fraud Unit of VRBO. They confirmed that the whole thing was a scam. We have rented for many years with VRBO, and have never had a VRBO website 'phished' so that without our knowledge, our legitimate inquiry to VRBO instead was diverted to Dan Ursu and his fraudulent operation in Vaslui, Romania. (and by the way Dan advertises that he is a web site designer...) My advice: do not ever send any payment whatsoever on a VRBO or HomeAway rental without calling the Fraud unit to make sure you are not dealing with a crook. And did I mention that Ursu fraudulently advertised the house as being in Florida, when in fact it is in Alabama? I am so glad VRBO's fraud unit saved us from flying 6 people to this nonexistent vacation house in the Florida keys...
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