Episode 6 Rip Off Britain

We asked you who has left you feeling ripped off

when it comes to your holidays.

And you came back with a catalogue of travel disasters.

We said, "No, we're going to stick with this

"and we're going to try and get something done about it."

When you are on holidays,

you don't want to fight with people, you just want to enjoy.

So whether it's a deliberate rip-off, a simple mistake,

or a catch in the small print...

We'll find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money.

This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and thank you so much for joining us

for a taste of winter sun here on Rip-Off Britain.

Now this time we're in the Canary Islands, investigating more

of the holiday stories that you've been kind enough to send us

and to look into on your behalf.

And why sometimes in this series, the reason why a trip has gone wrong

is all down to a straightforward, honest mistake.

I'm afraid that's not the case with the stories

you're about to hear today.

Far from it.

There's no mistake, honest or otherwise, in these situations.

In fact, let's not beat around the bush.

Most of the cases can best be described as out and out scams.

Indeed they are.

And whether or not they're designed to catch you out

while you're booking your holiday or when you're actually there,

some of these scams are ones that

could very easily be targeted at you.

So we're going to have plenty of advice to make sure that

you know exactly what to do to avoid being tricked out of your cash.

Coming up...

a long-awaited family holiday

grounded by a flight that never took off.

But had it ever really existed in the first place?

I couldn't actually believe it cos we packed everything,

we planned everything and then it's just got cancelled.

And booking a holiday home online.

Could the one you've picked be a scam?

It was horrible, it was absolutely horrible.

I realised that we'd been scammed out of £4,000.

Now, as we know from so many of the stories that we've covered

in the past, scammers can strike absolutely everywhere.

But it's when we're on holiday that perhaps

we're a fraudster's favourite target.

Let's face it, we're relaxed, may not fully understand the language

and you're probably not really wise to the tricks

that they've been pulling all summer long...

and why the sisters in our next film didn't actually consider

themselves an easy target.

They weren't banking on a group of people working together

to con them out of their cash.

And worse still, it wasn't until they got home

that they discovered the scam had an even nastier sting in the tail.

Sisters Alma Elliot and Theresa Snelling

have always been very close.

And after Alma's husband died in 2013,

they decided to take a holiday together to get away

from the stresses of all the arrangements.

I was really exhausted, having to sell, you know, like,

the home we'd had for 20... over 25 years.

It was quite an emotional time.

We were working very hard sorting out her house

and so we just needed a break.

They booked a ten-day holiday in Tenerife and when they arrived,

straight away set about seeing what the local town had to offer.

They were looking at sunhats at a beach-side shop called Goodwill

when they were approached by two men,

who told them they had something inside the shop

that the sisters might be interested in.

So, intrigued, the ladies went in

and were greeted by a further four men.

All the people in the shop were very, very friendly

and really made us feel quite comfortable.

The ladies were led to the back of the store

and one of the men attempted to talk Alma into buying a camcorder

made by a manufacturer called Pentasonic.

He started to give the pair a demonstration of how it worked.

The man was showing us just what it could do

and it seemed quite fascinating

and I thought I'd like one.

In fact, Alma and Theresa were so convinced by the sales patter

that they decided to buy one each.

Theresa paid 273 euros, that's just over £200,

and she paid for that on her credit card,

while Alma put the same amount on her debit card.

But instead of being able to take their camcorders

with them there and then, the shop manager told them to collect them

on the last day of their holiday, after he had translated

the cameras' internal menus from Spanish to English.

Reluctantly, the sisters agreed, but they left feeling very uneasy.

We realised that we had paid for something that we hadn't got

and if we were going to go back on the last day,

they could come up with, "Oh, there's been a problem."

So we thought we would go back early and surprise them.

And when they did, as well as picking up their camcorders,

the shop manager also tried to give them a mini-tablet each.

We said no, we didn't want them

and we weren't interested in them,

but they said they were for free.

But he persisted, claiming that the mini-tablets were part

of a special promotion by Pentasonic.

The only snag was that the tablets would also need to be

translated into English and to get their gift,

the sisters would have to come back to the shop yet again.

Well, Alma and Teresa agreed,

but, still feeling unsure about the camcorders they'd bought,

they popped into another shop nearby,

looking for reassurance about their purchases.

And for whatever reason, the manager at that shop told them that,

yes, they had got an amazing deal.

We felt a lot happier after being in there,

because this was a photographic shop

and we felt that we weren't being...

..conned.

So, reassured, the next day, Alma and Theresa went back

to the original shop, Goodwill, to collect their free tablets.

But before they could leave,

the manager persuaded the sisters to buy a couple of cases for them.

When I put my card in, I was checking the amount

and I was surprised because it was 88 euros

and I thought it was going to be a bit less than that.

This time, they both paid by using their debit cards.

But when Teresa asked for her receipt,

the shop manager insisted that he'd already given it to her.

Well, I was annoyed so I thought, "Well, I'll just make a note,

"88 euros, I'll see what comes onto my card."

They returned home to Somerset confident that, for 361 Euros,

each of them had got a great deal on a brand-new camcorder,

tablet and case.

But Alma's daughter, Beth, helps her mother to manage her finances

and regularly checks her Lloyds Bank statements.

And when she next logged on to her mum's accounts,

she was appalled at what she found.

I went onto my mum's bank account

and I noticed that she was quite severely overdrawn.

I could see that the debits were from abroad.

Over £2,750 had been taken out of her account by the shop,

Goodwill.

I knew instantly that this wasn't correct.

Theresa also banks with Lloyds

and when she then contacted the bank,

she was shocked to discover that the shop had taken

a total of £5,000 from her bank account and her credit card.

Suddenly...

my world turned upside down.

Because to us, it was as clear as day that we had been scammed.

Beth immediately looked into how the sisters might be able

to get their money back and discovered that,

because they'd paid with their credit and debit cards,

they might be able to claim a refund

using the little-known chargeback scheme,

which can help if there's been fraudulent activity on your account,

or indeed, you haven't got what you paid for.

I told them to go into the bank the next day

and ask them to initiate the chargeback process.

And a few days later, when Beth checked Alma's account again,

she was relieved by what she saw.

I noticed that she had been re-credited with all the money

that had been taken and I was thrilled.

And I rang her immediately to tell her and then the next call I made

was to my aunt because I naturally presumed that the same

would happen to her.

However, this wasn't the case.

Although Theresa was refunded for the fraudulent activity

by her credit card company, when she contacted the bank again

to check that she, too, would get back the money

taken from her bank account, she was given very different news.

I just cannot understand how the same bank,

who we've both been with for over 50 years,

could treat two sisters so differently.

We weren't told anything, they never gave us a reason.

It was just decided.

And Beth is far from impressed with the products the ladies bought.

As soon as I opened it up,

I was a little anxious about it and nervous about it.

We took some footage with it, we tried to connect it to our laptop,

but we couldn't do that, it didn't work.

The first thing I did was research it on the internet

and sure enough, all my searches came back with warnings

about Pentasonic and this not being the camera you believe it to be

when you buy it.

We contacted the Goodwill shop in Tenerife for an explanation.

As yet, they haven't replied.

As for the camera manufacturer, Pentasonic...

well, we haven't been able to track them down.

In fact, we couldn't find any evidence

that such a company even exists.

But we also contacted Lloyds Bank to see why one of the sisters

had received a refund, while the other didn't.

And this time, we got a very positive response.

The bank told us it's "sorry for the experience"

that Alma and Theresa had

and it understands the distress that this type of situation can cause.

It stressed it takes all cases of fraud,

"Very seriously and always looks into them on an individual basis."

As a result, Lloyds has, "Now reimbursed both customers

"for the money that was debited from their accounts,"

and has also given Theresa an additional £250

for the delay in their decision.

Jane Negus from the UK European Consumer Centre

has some pointers on how to protect your money

when you're shopping abroad.

When you buy electrical goods abroad,

the first thing we would say is that if something is very cheap or,

you know, somebody is trying to convince you

it's a really good deal,

make sure that is actually the deal that they're saying.

Go off and do a bit of research first before you actually purchase.

Use a credit card if it's over £100, it will give you added protection.

If your bank refuse your claim, you can take it further,

whether it's a debit or a credit card,

and take it to the financial ombudsman.

And while Alma and Theresa are very relieved to have their money back,

the entire experience has left a lasting impact.

I suppose my whole view of the world is different now.

I don't feel it's such a safe place any more.

Now, we hear a lot from people whose holidays didn't go to plan.

But whatever went wrong,

they did, in most cases, at least get to their destination,

which is more than can be said for the family we're about to meet.

Because, despite promises and assurances even just hours

before they were due to take off,

they still don't know to this day for certain whether the holiday

they booked and paid thousands for had ever really existed.

Amanda Chin and husband Kok Wah have been running a takeaway

in Shrewsbury for the last 14 years.

Hello, Bamboo City.

Yes, for delivery or pick up?

It's taken many hours of hard work to build up the business,

and although it's now thriving, Amanda and her family have only ever

taken seven days off in all the time they've worked there.

Since then, the family has hardly been going out anywhere.

Just working seven days a week, same every day.

So in July 2014, Amanda decided it was time for the whole family,

including her grandma, who lives in Malaysia,

to take a holiday together.

We hardly see them.

Probably Christmas time or Chinese New Year time.

This was the first time since they all came to England

about 20 years ago.

And the perfect opportunity seemed to present itself

when one of their regular customers, James Brown,

offered Amanda what appeared to be a great deal.

Mr Brown said he was setting up a new company called

Wales European Aviation,

with its own airline, flyWEA.

He explained the company offered private charter flights and trips

and he could put together a package for Amanda and her family.

He said, "As you're a good friend, we'll do you a good deal

"with all the packages and I'll sort everything out for you."

James Brown said he could take Amanda and 18 of her relatives

to Disneyland Paris for £170 per person.

That would cover two nights accommodation and entry tickets

to the park and return flights.

What's more, they would be able to take the flight

from Welshpool Airport, which was just 20 miles away

from Amanda's home.

Children have been asking me almost every year that they want to go

to Disneyland because their friends are going there,

their friends have been there and they haven't been there.

So it was their very first holiday where they wanted always.

James Brown told Amanda that, in order to get the trip booked,

he would need all the money, a total of £3,230,

in cash up front.

I think I had asked him if I could transfer it to him,

but he said, "I'll be around, you can pay me cash when it's ready."

And he said, "OK, once you've got it,

"and then I'll come down and pick it up."

And then he just came down straight away.

So, with the holiday paid for, all that was left for Amanda to do

was to organise the arrival of her grandma travelling over

from Malaysia and try and contain the excitement of the children.

Once we'd paid and everybody was just...

Actually, the kids started packing,

they were that excited and getting ready and things

and all their lists of what to bring.

We don't usually go on holiday very often

and this was, like, one in years.

We were going to Disneyland because it would be a good experience

because I've never been there before.

I was looking forward to all the rides and all the characters.

And on the 11th August, their wait was finally over.

The morning of the holiday had arrived.

My girls, they hardly sleep that night

because they were that excited.

It was to be an early flight,

so Amanda made sure she was up and about to get everyone ready

and check any final details.

I came in and checked my e-mail.

Just said, "Urgent message, the holiday had to be cancelled today,"

cos the plane was still in Spain.

"It's got a fault so they need to check it out before coming back."

The e-mail said that the holiday would simply be delayed by a day.

Amanda tried calling James Brown, but couldn't get through.

She e-mailed to find out more,

but then had to break the news to the rest of the family

that they wouldn't be taking off that day as planned.

I thought it wasn't true, like, I thought it was just a joke.

I thought that my mum was joking.

I couldn't actually believe it cos we packed everything,

we planned everything and then it's just got cancelled.

For the rest of the day,

everyone waited whilst Amanda tried to get answers.

There were plenty of e-mails, with lots of updates and excuses,

but still no plane.

Finally, at 1am the next morning,

he said the flight would not be going ahead at all

and said they could either change the date or get a refund.

All the children, just sitting there, in tears and crying

and somewhere in their room.

Everybody's just upset.

This feels like they were all trusting me at first about all this

and then suddenly, all this...

Behind, they may be thinking I'm part of this,

I'm trying to rip them off and take their money.

But, no, it's hard to explain.

It's nothing to do with me, it's this guy.

As the family began to come to terms with their disappointment,

Amanda set about trying to their money back.

I asked him to transfer to my bank and then I gave him my bank details

and he said he couldn't make it to the bank.

And then I said,

"You can pop it down to me or I can come to pick it up

"from you, if it's not convenient for you."

But when, over a week later, there had been no sign of James Brown,

or indeed her refund, Amanda and her family became increasingly angry.

Over the next month, Amanda tried repeatedly to get their £3,230 back,

but with no success.

All she got was excuse after excuse.

Then he said he had to go in hospital,

so it took him a few days and then I got back to him.

He came back and said...

..er, he'd been having too much problems with families and companies

and that his company has got some financial trouble

and then he said he needed to borrow money from his friend to pay me off.

Two months after she was due to fly,

Amanda was told by James Brown that his company was being "wound down"

and that he was going to borrow money from a friend to pay her back.

But all the excuses were beginning to wear very thin.

It was almost every day that people, all the friends and family,

ringing to ask me, "How's it going?

"How's the payment? When will we receive it?"

I said, "I've never upset so many people in one go, all 19 of you."

And that's when Amanda got in touch with us.

We decided to check out James Brown's credentials,

to see what chance there had ever been

that he could fly the family to Disneyland Paris.

In order to fly a plane commercially,

James Brown would need an Air Operator Certificate,

registered with the Civil Aviation Authority.

But when we contacted them, they told us that,

although flyWEA had been in touch,

they weren't processing an application for the company

or any other operator working for them.

As a result, it would have been illegal for him to take Amanda

and her family on this trip.

What's more, the CAA added that for James Brown to provide the flight

and accommodation package he had promised,

he would also need an ATOL licence, which flyWEA did not have.

We also contacted Welshpool Airport,

where the flight had supposedly been due to take off.

It said they had never heard of flyWEA or James Brown.

And they pointed out their runway is too short to accommodate

the type of plane that James Brown claimed would be flying.

Clearly, James Brown has a lot of explaining to do.

But despite us contacting him,

he hasn't responded to any of our questions.

And Amanda and her family are still out of pocket to the tune of £3,288.

Next time, I'll make sure.

You know, probably go to a proper agent

and make sure it's actually confirmed before telling them

and making them too excited.

But it will be a while for the next family holiday to happen again.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain,

the families who all had the same disastrous experience

with the caravan holidays they'd booked.

Not only did they end up with no holiday,

it turns out there was no caravan either.

I felt absolutely deflated. I felt sick to my stomach.

I felt cheated, I felt angry.

All...bag of emotions.

Last summer, we took the whole team out on the road,

once again opening up our annual consumer advice clinic,

this time in the West Midlands.

You told us about all kinds of holiday-related problems,

some of them rather nasty, like the Mediterranean cruise

that Annalise and Amanda came to tell Simon Calder about.

Sometimes, when you come out to have your breakfast

and you went to toilet, there was all sewage up there.

As soon as we got back, we told them everything

and they just sent a letter saying everything had been sorted now.

You got nothing, that's it.

I've got the letters at home and they've never really apologised.

So no compensation, nothing beyond saying,

"Well, things are fixed now"?

Two weeks on that cruise, it had been a holiday from hell.

The conditions on board the ship,

if it's just unpleasant rather than dangerous...

Well, that's awful, but there's no way I can see that you can sue

a company for having a smelly ship.

But our pop-up shop isn't just about problems.

It's about giving advice to stop them happening in the first place.

And travel journalist Alison Rice had plenty of useful tips

at one of the workshops that we ran over the weekend,

especially on how to avoid being left out of pocket

if you're using your credit card abroad.

My top tip, of course, is if you're using credit or debit cards...

What they often do in the Eurozone is ask if you want to pay

in sterling or the local currency.

And when you use a debit or credit card, if they give the option,

always say you want to pay in the local currency,

because actually, the card companies do their own conversion rates

and guess who is not the winner.

And the other thing I think you should do

if you're thinking of using your credit card which...

Never, ever, unless you're in a dire emergency,

use your credit card for getting cash out of the hole in the wall.

That is a very expensive thing.

Even if you pay your credit card bill every month, they bill you on

interest from the day you take the cash till the end of the month.

All good advice.

And here's another nugget you won't have heard before.

Teacher Maria Crawford despairs at the cost of going away

in the summer holidays.

But Simon's got a money-saving suggestion

that just could work for you, too.

The solution I would strongly suggest and I've tired this myself,

is if you're going to have a holiday in August in Europe

and you want a beach and you want sunshine,

then it has to be the Costa del Poland, the Polish Riviera.

It's fantastic. You could fly to anywhere, from Szczecin in the west

all the way to Gdansk in the East and you're going to find

you've effectively got a 300 mile long beach.

It's really friendly, it's very easy to find good places to stay

and fantastically good value.

-You'll be laughing, I promise.

-Thank you.

Until recently, Jane Ryan, Dagmar Gove and Becky Watts

didn't have much in common,

besides their shared love of caravan holidays.

But now, they've been brought together by one of the most

shocking stories we've come across.

All three of them and many others, too, had their holidays ruined

for the very same reason and by the very same person.

Mum of four Becky wanted to take her entire family on holiday to Devon

but, in peak summer season,

was finding it hard to find anything within her budget.

There's not many deals out at that time of year,

purely because obviously it's a prime time.

But we pushed the boat out. It had been a tough year for the children

and we really wanted, you know, them to have a good surprise

and something to really look forward to.

So when she spotted an ad on Facebook, offering a week

in a privately owned caravan that was both within budget

and in a site with beautiful coastal setting called Devon Cliffs,

she couldn't believe her luck.

I thought, "Wow." Right at the end of the six weeks holiday

and it was a cancellation offer.

And we thought, "Right, we'll go for it."

The advertisement was on a Facebook Buy and Sell Site

which, as we've reported before, are a little like classified ads.

A woman called Emma Fewings was listed as the caravan's owner,

so Becky messaged her to find out more.

I didn't obviously speak to her over the phone,

it was just done through message,

but really just a really friendly kind of person.

Delighted to have found an affordable holiday,

Becky paid the entire £600 cost by bank transfer straight

into Emma's account and waited for the kids' summer holidays to start.

Meanwhile, in Newton Abbot, Dagmar Gove was also looking forward

to her holiday in another of Emma Fewings' caravans

at Perran Sands in Cornwall.

I contacted her to say,

"It's a nice idea, I would like to have the caravan."

And she said, "Yeah, but you have to pay straight away."

Dagmar had booked almost nine months earlier,

paying £450 for a week's stay,

right in the middle of the school summer holidays.

Like Becky, she had seen the caravan on a Facebook Buy and Sell site,

which had boosted her confidence in the deal even more.

There are several sites from people in our area

and it's very common you buy and sell everything, so I thought,

"It can't be a con because this lady is just living around the corner."

But a month before Dagmar's holiday,

other families who'd booked the same caravan at Perran Sands

were seeing their holiday plans unravel.

Jane Ryan paid £550 for a week in the caravan

with her husband and two daughters.

But as the holiday approached, they still had not received

the caravan keys as they had been promised.

It stated on the e-mail that the keys would be delivered

to my home address and I messaged her to say that

I'd not received any package at all.

I then had a message back to tell me there'd been a problem.

The people that were in the caravan a week prior to mine

had wrecked the caravan and they had taken the keys.

She said, don't worry, she was 100% certain she could find us

another caravan for our holiday.

Suspecting that something was amiss,

Jane called the company who own the caravan park

just to double check that Emma Fewings' story stacked up.

I explained what had happened and I was then told this name

had been flagged to them the previous week

and he was sorry to tell me that he didn't feel that

there was going to be a holiday.

The rep couldn't give further details, but it turned out

that Emma Fewings had sold her caravan six months earlier.

This was the very first time the penny dropped

that I knew then that I'd been scammed.

So I composed myself and I rang her.

She was very apologetic and said that she was, you know,

more than sure that she would get me a holiday,

again telling us to pack the car, again telling us to come down.

Emma Fewings said she'd check with friends on the same site

whether their caravans were available,

but Jane's husband, Adrian, was having none of it.

My husband said to her there was no way that he wanted to pack up

and come down, not knowing that there'd be a holiday for us.

She then said did we want our money back

and my husband said it was probably the best thing to do.

The following day, Jane's money was refunded in full.

I said to her, "If there are other families that you've got waiting

"for this holiday, you need to contact them today.

"Please don't let them go through what I've gone through

"these last couple of days."

Jane wasn't to know others were about to have

the same thing happen to them.

Back in Newton Abbot, Dagmar, too, was concerned

when she didn't receive the keys either.

It wasn't in the post and I was getting a little bit worried

and that was when it sort of dawned on me that something could be wrong.

I said, "Not a problem,

"I have the whole order confirmation with all the details."

So I phoned the mobile number, but nobody answered.

Unable to contact Emma Fewings,

Dagmar posted a message on the Facebook Buy and Sell group,

asking if anyone could shed any light on the situation.

She was astounded to suddenly hear from lots of other

disgruntled holiday-makers who had also booked a stay

in an Emma Fewings' caravan, but never had it.

In a weird way, I felt relieved that I'm not the only idiot,

because I really felt like an idiot.

And in the other way...

er, I thought, "Yeah, we have to do something if we are more than one."

One of the people who saw all the posts about Dagmar's message

was Becky Watts in Taunton.

And she immediately began to panic about her own family's holiday.

I felt absolutely deflated, I felt sick to my stomach.

I felt cheated, I felt angry, all...bag of emotions.

When I booked the holiday, I was at ease the whole time.

She was so reassuring, very prompt at getting back to you

if you had a question, very friendly.

Didn't, you know, in one million years think

that this wasn't going to be, you know, how it ended, whatsoever.

Lovely, thank you.

Thank you.

'Jane, Dagmar and Becky met through a Facebook page

'that Jane set up for others who'd been let down in the same way.

'So far, they believe at least 15 people have been affected.'

It's not just devastating knowing the fact that there's no holiday,

but it's upsetting for all the families involved,

for your children especially.

We're all in the same boat and we're all extremely angry.

They've all reported their cases to the police and to Action Fraud,

who told us it had 150 reports linked to the same caravan owner.

We've also discovered that although

Emma Fewings DID in the past own a caravan at Perran Sands,

she has NEVER owned one at Devon Cliffs,

where Becky was due to take her family on holiday.

We contacted Emma Fewings for an explanation

but so far, she hasn't responded to any of our questions.

We also contacted Facebook,

who told us that while they couldn't comment on individual cases,

pages where people buy or sell goods are

"helpful for local communities",

so they "wouldn't want to discourage this".

However, they stressed how important it is to be vigilant

when buying from someone who isn't an approved retailer,

and pointed out that they

"work with the police to help people on Facebook stay safe".

And Becky, Dagmar and Jane all agree

they won't be booking their holiday through an ad this way again.

Next time, I would be a little bit more careful.

I would try to meet this person, you know, in person.

I would look up a little bit more information.

Not just like I did before.

I would certainly never book like that again.

I would always go through a proper company.

For many people, the best holidays are about getting away from it all

and that can also mean getting away from the bustle of a busy hotel

and instead choosing to stay somewhere that feels more like home.

But booking a villa or an apartment

isn't always as straightforward as it might appear.

Dozens of websites have sprung up hosting adverts

from thousands of individual owners.

But while it might look and feel as if you're booking

through a travel agency - one that's vetted every property

and will protect you if something goes wrong -

that's not necessarily the case

and it may be too late when you discover that.

Now Christmas is behind us and we're stuck in our homes

looking at weather like this...

it's the time of year when many of us start planning our next trip

to the sunshine.

People like Jilly Roberts, a school teacher from Leeds.

Well, every year we try and go abroad, don't we?

-Yeah.

-We like to go... Where do we like to go?

-Spain.

We do like to go to Spain, don't we?

The family has previously booked their Spanish accommodation

through a website called Owners Direct

where homeowners from around the world advertise their properties

for holiday-makers to rent.

And so far they've been delighted with the places they've stayed.

Really nice apartments, very, you know, sort of high spec,

air conditioned and right on the pool side,

so that's sort of the standard that we've looked forward to.

Expecting to match their previous experiences,

Jilly went back to the Owners Direct site

and quickly found what she thought was the perfect place in Andalucia.

It had everything she and the friends they'd be going with

could possibly want.

It was just perfect. It was six bedrooms,

which we needed for the three families, air conditioning.

It was nicely appointed, it looked very modern on the photographs,

so it was just, it was ideal really.

The villa was listed as belonging to a Mr Michael Fitzgerald.

So Jilly got in touch with him via the website's messaging system.

He e-mailed back and gave us all the details,

said it was great for those dates.

He'd need a deposit, which is standard.

Michael Fitzgerald said that for 12 people for ten nights

the cost would be £4,000.

And to secure the booking,

he asked Jilly to send him £1,750 via bank transfer.

In previous years, that's how we've paid for apartments,

through direct bank transfers to Spanish banks, so, you know,

we had that sort of element of prior knowledge

that gave us a bit more security there.

So we transferred the money across.

Safe in the knowledge that their villa had been reserved,

Jilly started planning the trip

and a few weeks later, she paid the outstanding balance of £2,250.

But six weeks before they were due to depart,

Jilly received a worrying e-mail from Owners Direct.

The e-mail said we have reason to believe that

this villa is not legitimate, and my heart just sank,

it's what you're worried about.

In the back of your mind, there's always that niggling sort of doubt,

because it does happen, you hear about it happening.

Jilly immediately tried to get in touch with Michael Fitzgerald

on the number Owners Direct had given her.

No reply at all.

In fact it was a Spanish message

saying this number has been discontinued,

so there was a bit of a panic there.

So Jilly turned to Owners Direct to see if they could help.

I said, you know, "Is it possible it's a mistake?"

They said, "No, it's not a mistake

"but we can't tell you because of data protection."

So the initial thought was, "Right, we can't go on holiday

"and I've got to tell all my friends that this isn't happening."

So it was horrible, it was absolutely horrible.

I realised that we'd been scammed out of £4,000.

Jilly had to break the bad news to her family and friends.

I knew that when I told the children

that we potentially wouldn't go on holiday

that they would be absolutely heartbroken and there were tears,

it was horrible. They were so upset.

I felt terribly guilty, I felt it was my fault.

With Michael Fitzgerald now off the radar,

Jilly hoped Owners Direct might come to the rescue.

But the company told her the maximum compensation it could offer

would be £700 which still left Jilly and her friends

£3,300 out of pocket.

I was cross when they said £700 was the most we were going to get back

because as far as I was concerned,

yes, they'd just advertised the villa

but, you know, you do have a responsibility.

I think they need to be a lot more vigilant,

they need to be able to see the deeds of the property,

they need to have all that evidence on file

before they can actually advertise.

When we contacted Owners Direct, the company reiterated that

Jilly had received the maximum available

from the free guarantee they provide

but pointed out that additional insurance IS available.

They're sorry she experienced online fraud,

saying that "one hard-earned holiday ruined is one too many"

and stressed they're doing all they can to tackle this

with "a Trust and Security team in place to identify

"and remove any fraudulent listings".

As a result, they say,

"Less than 0.1%" of customers fall victim to frauds like this one.

"But as a further security measure, they've recently introduced a

"secure online payment system

"offering up to £10,000 protection to combat

"the activities of increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals".

But Jilly and her family are not the only ones

to have been taken in in this way.

Scams like this are global,

affecting not just Brits going abroad,

but people from other countries coming here.

Sally Nordfelt and her nephew Ben live in Australia.

Over the internet,

they told us how last year Sally had booked accommodation in London

on a website called FlipKey.

It was advertised as a four-bedroom apartment

near the Natural History Museum and we thought this is amazing.

The owner asked for a £925 deposit - half the total cost.

He provided me with an e-mail with all of his banking details

so I did like a bank transfer to their account.

But after that, Sally heard nothing more from him.

I was stressing and so while we were travelling to the UK,

I had my daughter trying to e-mail him all the time,

two days before we were going to arrive in London

and I had called him about three times on his mobile

and I finally got an answer

and his response was that they had renovators in.

Claiming asbestos may have been found in the property,

the owner cancelled the booking.

Sally wasn't thrilled at having to find new accommodation

at the last minute, but she only started doubting the truth of what

she'd been told when she had problems

trying to get back her deposit.

I got in touch with FlipKey as soon as he cancelled it

and I gave them a copy of his e-mail and they just said,

"Oh, we just suggest that you liaise with the owner and sort it out

"and get your refund from him." And that was it.

And over a year later, Sally is still waiting for the property owner

to send any of her deposit back.

FlipKey, part of TripAdvisor,

told us that while they're sorry to hear about Sally's experience,

they always advise site users to pay

using the company's payment platform,

NOT directly to the owner.

If she had, she'd have qualified for the site's

"Peace Of Mind Guarantee".

They added that after advising her to liaise with the owner

about a refund, they heard nothing more

and if they'd known he hadn't paid up, they'd have tried contacting him

and, if necessary, removed the property from their site.

Tony Neate is an expert on online security.

He says if you're hunting for a holiday home online, it's up to YOU,

not the website you're using, to make sure you don't get scammed.

It's your responsibility to make sure that property exists

and that you're paying the right person.

So you can research the individual

and you can research the property that you're looking to rent.

There are lots of websites that give reviews,

see the time span that those reviews are over

because what we find is that these criminal enterprises

pick a particular property,

but they will only stick with them for six or seven months,

because, of course, once people start going there,

they start telling other people that they're fraudulent.

But Jilly, who's lost over £3,000 AND her holiday,

thinks the websites that unwittingly advertise fraudulent properties

should be doing more to help.

I do think that they have a responsibility to ensure

that the people that booked through them are looked after.

And they just need to maybe make sure that

they are more vigilant in policing their website.

If you've got a story you'd like us to investigate,

then get in touch with us via our Facebook page

BBC Rip Off Britain,

our website, bbc.co.uk/ripoffbritain

or e-mail us at:

Or if you want to send us a letter,

then our new address is:

You know, not all of the scams we've heard about today are ones

you could necessarily have spotted in advance,

but quite a few of them are avoidable

if you know exactly what to look out for.

And quite often, it comes down to advice that actually

we've given out on this programme plenty of times before,

not least to be wary of companies that say that you can only pay them

by bank transfer.

With trusted traders, that can sometimes be OK.

But in the cases you typically tell us about,

not only have you ended up losing your cash,

but you also don't have any of the recourse you'd have got

if you'd paid by credit card.

So when it comes to a sizable purchase like a holiday

or a flight ticket, it's always safest to pay by card.

That's especially true if you're dealing with a company

that you've never heard of before.

I'm afraid that's where we have to leave you for today.

But please do keep telling us about anyone at all that's left you

feeling ripped off, on any subject, not just on holidays.

And it could be your experience that we'll be looking into

on a future programme.

But in the meantime, thanks so much for joining us all here today

-and we hope to see you again soon. Until then, bye-bye.

-Bye.

-Bye.