An e-mail based scam from what seems to be a professional con-man is doing the rounds aimed at holiday property owners.

Many holiday property owners let out their property via third-party internet advertising firms and one such, Rentalsofspain.com is advising its property owners of a scam that’s starts as an enquiry from abroad.

The initial enquiry is fairly straightforward, although slightly tricky in that it purports to come from an agent who claims to have guests for the property. It asks for a ‘grand total’ price for the property for the weeks indicated.

After a while, this is followed by a confirmatory e-mail, thanking you for your assistance, saying he has taken payment from the guests and adding a rider that the guests need car hire from a specialist firm. He says he will send you credit card details that will cover the cost of the property and the car hire and asks that you deal with the total sum and send the balance of the money to the car hire firm.

Don’t do it!

Like all scams that ask you to collect money on somebody else’s behalf, you will be left out of pocket (and maybe your bank account details stolen as well) when the original payment does not materialise or is reversed by the bank.

These con-men are very clever, and no doubt there are further episodes to this story, but as the scam is going round right now, we at TheMoveChannel are warning to leave this enquiry alone from the start to avoid getting pulled in by the scamsters guile.