A nan fell prey to scammers who "destroyed" her family holiday and robbed her of hundreds of pounds.
Val Furneaux, 77, planned to make the trip from her home in the Isle of Wight to Merseyside in April to visit her newborn great-grandson. Val booked a three-night stay at a house in Birkenhead through online travel agency Booking.com, however, before her holiday, she received messages from the purported owner of the property asking her to pay the full balance upfront.
Val told the ECHO: "I had a message through on WhatsApp to say that I had to pay immediately as it was only a few days away from our arrival. I spoke to the woman on the phone and paid through online banking."
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Having paid for her accommodation, Val and her family set out on the 300-mile journey to Wirral, but the holiday was thrown into disarray when the owner messaged to say they could no longer stay at the property as the patio doors had allegedly been smashed by golf balls. The group, who also had a four-year-old in tow, were told to go to a nearby Holiday Inn, where the woman claimed she had made them an alternative reservation.
Val said: “She told us that she’d booked us a family room at the Holiday Inn for one night before we could go to a second property the next day, but when we got there, there was no booking. And in the 15 minutes we were in the car park, we ended up getting a £100 parking ticket.
“It was Grand National weekend so there was hardly any accommodation anywhere. We managed to get two double rooms at Leasowe Castle and the woman said that, if I gave her my account details, she’d put the money in my account for me but she didn’t.”
Things went from bad to worse the following morning when the family received another message from the alleged owner telling them the alternative property she had arranged for them was also unavailable, forcing Val to foot the bill for another two nights at Leasowe Castle and bringing her total accommodation costs to £1,688.
After returning from her trip, Val maintained contact with the owner who was “apologetic” and vowed that she would get a refund. Val also began to receive emails claiming to be from Booking.com, promising compensation and leaving the 77-year-old confident she would get her money back.
When no such compensation arrived, Val took to social media where she discovered she wasn't the only one to have been stung by the same scammer.
She said: "Just by chance last week, I went on to Facebook and saw someone else had been caught out as well which led me to other people and confirmed that it was a scam.
“I got in touch with my bank who said the emails that came through purporting to be from Booking.com were probably from the fraudsters. I don't have an address for the woman who I was in contact with, but apparently the property belongs to her father.
"When somebody went to visit the house, he said five other lots of people had been there looking to stay at the property as well. He also said that the woman might have stolen her sister’s identity.”
Val has contacted Booking.com but, as she paid no money directly to the travel site, the company has advised her to go through her bank. The incident is also currently being investigated by Action Fraud.
Val told the ECHO the situation has forced her to resort to beta blockers to help deal with the stress.
She said: “I’ve just got so stressed out with it all that I had to go on beta blockers which were causing me problems as well. It ruined what was going to be a lovely trip to see my great grandson.
"It completely destroyed the trip actually, because the first day we were just wandering around trying to find somewhere to stay. It’s just horrible what she’s done, not just to me but to other people.”
Booking.com told the ECHO: "We take any complaint seriously and are investigating the issues raised. We are currently in touch with the customer in relation to this reservation."
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