{"id":21452,"date":"2014-08-23T13:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/holiday-misery-for-the-scam-victims-who-believed-theyd-booked-a-villa-through-owners-direct\/"},"modified":"2016-07-31T04:09:07","modified_gmt":"2016-07-30T21:09:07","slug":"holiday-misery-for-the-scam-victims-who-believed-theyd-booked-a-villa-through-owners-direct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/holiday-misery-for-the-scam-victims-who-believed-theyd-booked-a-villa-through-owners-direct\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday misery for the scam victims who believed they\u2019d booked a villa through Owners Direct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#013;<br \/>\nFamilies pay for accommodation only to discover, at the last minute, it\u2019s non-existent. That means finding somewhere else to stay and meeting the costThree weeks ago Natasha McDonald, her husband and three children were standing outside the villa in Puerto Ban\u00fas, near Marbella in southern Spain that they had booked for 10 days at a cost of \u00a31,600. But there was no sign of the owner, or the keys. The villa company website was down and, in despair, the family trudged off with their bags to a hotel for the night.Only the next day did the McDonalds, from south London, discover they had fallen victim to a cruel scam in which crooks hijack the emails of villa owners who advertise through Owners Direct and its sister site, HomeAway. Continue reading&#8230;&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource : theguardian.com&#013;<br \/>\nRead more&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2014\/aug\/23\/holiday-book-online-owners-direct-homeaway-scam\" target=\"_blank\">Holiday misery for the scam victims who believed they\u2019d booked a villa through Owners Direct<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#013; Families pay for accommodation only to discover, at the last minute, it\u2019s non-existent. That means&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-5A0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60800,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/could-you-spot-a-bogus-airbnb-listing-among-the-genuine-ones\/","url_meta":{"origin":21452,"position":0},"title":"Could you spot a bogus Airbnb listing among the genuine ones?","date":"July 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A British family lost \u00a34,100 when their Airbnb villa in Sicily, booked for this week, turned out to be fake. We also look at why tenants should beware tooAn internet businessman based in Bath, who lost more than \u00a34,100 to sophisticated Airbnb fraudsters after booking what he thought was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14788,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/owners-seek-to-remove-historic-villa\/","url_meta":{"origin":21452,"position":1},"title":"Owners seek to remove historic villa","date":"May 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Only months after a landmark 1905 villa was removed from Jervois Rd in Herne Bay, plans have been lodged to remove a second villa a couple of blocks away.David and Jocelyn Weatherall have applied to Auckland Council to remove a...\r \r Source : nzherald.co.nz\/Property\r Read more...Owners seek to remove\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":167521,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/dubai-villa-owners-are-sitting-on-a-goldmine-as-property-market-enters-2026-expert\/","url_meta":{"origin":21452,"position":2},"title":"Dubai villa owners are \u2018sitting on a goldmine\u2019 as property market enters 2026 \u2013 expert","date":"December 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Tight supply and strong family demand are expected to push villa prices ahead of apartments in 2026 The post Dubai villa owners are \u2018sitting on a goldmine\u2019 as property market enters 2026 \u2013 expert appeared first on Arabian Business: Latest News on the Middle East, Real Estate, Finance, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Palm-Jumeirah-1000x667-3.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":686,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/booking-a-cottage-this-summer-beware-the-holiday-let-that-becomes-a-let-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":21452,"position":3},"title":"Booking a cottage this summer? Beware the holiday let that becomes a let down","date":"April 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Fake holiday villas and cottages can easily turn a dream into a nightmare, as two groups booking through HomeAway found outAre you planning to book a villa or cottage this summer? Two groups that booked a property through HomeAway, sister company to Owners Direct, have lost thousands of pounds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83375,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/scammed-and-the-bank-wont-pay-up-beware-the-section-75-get-out-clause\/","url_meta":{"origin":21452,"position":4},"title":"Scammed and the bank won\u2019t pay up? Beware the Section 75 get-out clause","date":"March 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r We fell for a scam website but Santander wouldn\u2019t refund our money under the Consumer Credit ActI booked a villa holiday in Mallorca for \u00a31,624.76 with an online company called Balearic-Travel.com. The firm then stopped all contact. The night before our departure, I researched the company online and discovered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":107295,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/derelict-st-marys-bay-villa-back-on-market-a-year-later-for-3-25m-with-demolition-consent\/","url_meta":{"origin":21452,"position":5},"title":"Derelict St Marys Bay villa back on market a year later for $3.25m &#8211; with demolition consent","date":"May 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A century-old waterfront Auckland property is back on the market, 12 months after being sold.However, in the interim, the new owners of the derelict villa on St Marys Rd have managed to gain resource consent to demolish the 119-year-old...\r \r Source : nzherald.co.nz\/Property\r Read more...Derelict St Marys Bay villa\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}