Sad Story from One Who Trusted without Checking!

[disneykidatheart]

Nothing. I asked that question at least once earlier on this thread. It is so easy to plug in random names until you get a "hit" on that site, that I am sure you could use someone's name and "check out."

Question, did the PP's "aunt" have a common last name, ie, Miller, Smith, Jones, Roberts etc?

I surely hope I don't have to worry that my name is too common!

 

[InstImpres]

Well...my first reaction after reading Deb's post was to literally gasp at the horror of that thought but after thinking about it for a few minutes, I'm going to "ASSume" that anyone who would do something like that, would also probably use an alias posting ID with a low count, would probably exhibit more than one of the other warning signs, would not be able to provide valid contact information, would not be able to provide verifiable references (particularly if this were a DIS transaction) and wouldn't want to submit a written rental contact.

I agree, I was concerned too after reading this. DIS transactions could possibly be verified by looking at old rent posts. One thing that I now realize is great is 2 of the renters I give as references now send me an email whenever they give a reference for me. It would be a giant red flag for me to follow up quickly if I were not the person truly trying to rent.

 

[JandD Mom]

I surely hope I don't have to worry that my name is too common!

Well, our last name has so many letters in it that if someone would ever randomly guess it, then I wish them luck renting out our points!

So we are thinking we would be safe from this sort of identity theft.

 

[castleri]

Do we know for sure the Vogels reservation was completed successfully? I realize she had a post about her bcv stay, however, is it possible that she had to pay for that reservation when she arrived?

Quote by JimMIA
If memory serves me, I think they are returning shortly from their cruise, spending a day or two back at WDW offsite, and then going home. My guess is we'll hear something from them next week.

There was a post by VogelFamily on 10/13/06 concerning express checkout and the DDP so apparently the stay went as planned. Her ticker says 12 days since BCV followed by Disney Magic.

Since she posted then I am surprised that no one has heard from her yet about the current situations unless of course the trip was 14 days or more.
__________________

 

[mom2dzb]

One thing I thought of, what's to keep an unscrupulous renter from using the identity of another DVC member off the Orange County Comptroller's site and telling the potential rentee that they are that person with those points? Since this information is public information, it would very easy for them to do.
Then the potential rentee looks them up on the OCC website, see that they are a real person with real points and makes the deal. Only to be cheated.

There is actually a thread in the DVC forum here on DIS where DVC owners offer to give their name and hometown to people they don't even know.

 

[Y-ASK]

One thing I thought of, what's to keep an unscrupulous renter from using the identity of another DVC member off the Orange County Comptroller's site and telling the potential rentee that they are that person with those points?

Well if you insist on using a personal or credit card check to pay for the points the scammer might have a hard time cashing your check. Also, as someone else alluded to, you can check out names, addresses, phones numbers, etc. and if you don't asked for that type of information from the owner you're wrong... Never wire money. Be wary of a P.O. Box address. Make sure names, addresses, and numbers match and look closely at the Orange County Comp. info.

Y-ASK

On other thought. Make sure the owner gives you a legit E-Mail address. I'd even ask for a work address if possible but be wary of a gmail, hotmail, or yahoo e-mail account. I probably wouldn't give someone with that type of address my money but if you've got something like @ibm.com I'd probably feel comfortable.

 

[DVCJones]

I surely hope I don't have to worry that my name is too common!

me too!

 

[JimMIA]

There was a post by VogelFamily on 10/13/06 concerning express checkout and the DDP so apparently the stay went as planned. Her ticker says 12 days since BCV followed by Disney Magic.

Since she posted then I am surprised that no one has heard from her yet about the current situations unless of course the trip was 14 days or more.

They would have been checking out of BCV on the 13th, then going on a cruise (don't know the duration), and then I think back to WDW. The total trip was 14 days or a little more I think. I don't have the exact itinerary, but I think they are still on vacation.

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Well if you insist on using a personal or credit card check to pay for the points the scammer might have a hard time cashing your check. Also, as someone else alluded to, you can check out names, addresses, phones numbers, etc. and if you don't asked for that type of information from the owner you're wrong... Never wire money. Be wary of a P.O. Box address. Make sure names, addresses, and numbers match and look closely at the Orange County Comp. info.

Y-ASK

On other thought. Make sure the owner gives you a legit E-Mail address. I'd even ask for a work address if possible but be wary of a gmail, hotmail, or yahoo e-mail account. I probably wouldn't give someone with that type of address my money but if you've got something like @ibm.com I'd probably feel comfortable.

Wow....the problems with that is that the only time I've ever been ripped off it turned out the person had been a cashier at a store I shopped in. They took the numbers off the bottom of my check and began making debits to that account electronically. I had to close the account. So no method is totally safe if someone is dishonest. As far as the email is concerned, lots of people use gmail, hotmail, yahoo as their email, that doesn't necessarily make them a bad person or dishonest. My mom uses yahoo because her internet mail is notoriously bad for being able to get into.

 

[dianeschlicht]

(snip) As far as the email is concerned, lots of people use gmail, hotmail, yahoo as their email, that doesn't necessarily make them a bad person or dishonest. My mom uses yahoo because her internet mail is notoriously bad for being able to get into.

I agree. We have used a Mail.com address for years to avoid having to change it everytime our server changes. I always have it forwarded from mail.com to my server. Lots of folks do that so they can see personal email at work too.

 

[Frankiesmom]

any updates on this sad saga?

 

[diznyfanatic]

The only thing I can continue to say is that if someone who is going to turn over a signficant amount of cash, for ANY reason, to someone they don't know and chooses and is determined to take shortcuts, not take the time to perform checks to verify who they are dealing with, then somewhere, sometime, they WILL get ripped off.

Conversely, if you are someone who intends to rent your points, be prepared for some hard questions and expect to have to possibly make some changes to your current procedures or risk not being able to find someone to rent them to.

Thanks to Dani, Stacey and others, this thread has hopefully changed everything about how the rental process on both sides is viewed. It's been extremely eye opening for me and I'm sure many others. There has been a lot of very good advice shared on ways to help protect yourself.

If the information provided doesn't check out from now on, I will walk away. It's as simple as that.

 

[DMKEDM]

It's frustrating for me (and those who are helping me...and it's true for Stacey, too) to have nothing to report...but the sad fact is that there is as yet nothing we can report...

The waiting continues...

Happy day to alll...Dani

 

[skibum]

We are waiting and hoping with you guys!

 

[drakethib]

On other thought. Make sure the owner gives you a legit E-Mail address. I'd even ask for a work address if possible but be wary of a gmail, hotmail, or yahoo e-mail account. I probably wouldn't give someone with that type of address my money but if you've got something like @ibm.com I'd probably feel comfortable.

I understand what you are saying but I think I disagree here. I have a yahoo address that I have been having since Yahoo begin giving Yahoo accounts. In fact, I pay an additional $25 per year to have a Yahoo premium address.

I get tired of the bigger companies such as Road Runner claiming to have all of these spam filters only to get bombarded with Spam. Yahoo has a great web mail feature and other stuff. Plus when I want to chance ISP I don't have to worry about sending a notice out to my friends with a new contact email. Gmail has free pop3 access which is a big plus for many.

I don't not give my work address out because it is in fact for work and some companies are cracking down on personal email.


But don't get me wrong, I understand what you are saying, I just think a lot more people are starting to use these types of accounts for the convenience.

 

[diznyfanatic]

I'm sorry Dani. I'm truly sorry for both of you.

Regretably, if a 32 page and 437 response thread which includes the notion of possible criminal action, hasn't inspired the PP to not make things worse for herself and to make arrangements for repayment, I don't hold out much hope of a resolution any time soon.

I will continue to hope however, that I still might be proven wrong.

Have you even been able to determine if the PP is even an owner, or at least, manages the account of an owner?

If not, could this be a case as Deb suggested, where the PP simply posted a For Rent notice on the R/T and isn't actually affiliated in any way with DVC?

 

[twinklebug]

Regretably, if a 32 page and 437 response thread which includes the notion of possible criminal action, hasn't inspired the PP to not make things worse for herself and to make arrangements for repayment, I don't hold out much hope of a resolution any time soon.

I will continue to hope however, that I still might be proven wrong.

Have you even been able to determine if the PP is even an owner, or at least, manages the account of an owner?

I'm willing to bet the renter is affiliated with DVC in some small manner (someone noted that they had received points transferred, but not all) and has stopped her rental activities for the time being since the hunt is on, but chances are she'll be back at it within 12 months. THAT is my fear. It may not be here, it may be on a similar site, or through eBay - give her time and she'll be stealing again abusing the good name of DVC member.

 

[diznyfanatic]

I'm willing to bet the renter is affiliated with DVC in some small manner (someone noted that they had received points transferred, but not all) and has stopped her rental activities for the time being since the hunt is on, but chances are she'll be back at it within 12 months. THAT is my fear. It may not be here, it may be on a similar site, or through eBay - give her time and she'll be stealing again abusing the good name of DVC member.

Thanks twinklebug, I had forgotten that someone did receive a portion of their transferred points. Are we sure it was the same PP involved in that transaction?

Has anyone been able to determine the name of the "Aunt"/co-owner to see if it would be possible to contact her to help resolve this situation with the PP? Inevitably, if Law Enforcement becomes involved and is able to obtain that information, at some point that is probably what will happen anyway.

And I agree with the rest of your post as well. Unfortunately, we can't save the world from this person. We can all only do what we can to help protect the members of the DIS to help protect themselves from people such as this.

 

[Tikitoi]

Just read through this saga and hope that ALL (it sounds like more than 2) the victims here get their $$$.

 

[Patty3]

This is just so sad.