Family conned in chalet fraud
A family ski holiday went a bit wrong this week when they all turned up in Chamonix to find that their chalet did not exist. Two branches of the Vanbaelinghem family from Port-Saint-Louis (Bouches-du-Rhone) and Dunkerque (Nord) had been planning their joint holiday for the past 10 years.
Mathieu, a young father from the family found what sounded like the ideal accommodation: a luxury chalet for 12 people in Chamonix for just 2200 EUR per week. The photos and details on the French website leboncoin.fr made it sound like too good a deal to miss.
Mathieu sent an email to the chalet owner, who then spoke to him over the phone. Mathieu was slightly suspicious that the person on the phone sounded like a man in his fifties but that the name on the website “Mickaël” suggested a much younger person. Nevertheless he followed the instructions and sent a 1000 EUR deposit to an address in Loir-et-Cher.
On arriving in Chamonix last Saturday the family made their way to the address on Route des Nants, only to find that the chalet did not exist. The exterior photos on the website were of a neighbouring chalet and the interior photos had been taken from other accommodation websites and were not even of the same property.
The bewildered Vanbaelinghems would have been stranded if it were not for the help of neighbours in the area, who rallied round and found them an unoccupied chalet to stay in.
Apparently a similar thing happened back in December, again via the website leboincoin.fr, but the people involved did not lodge a complaint or report it to the police.
A British businessman was jailed at the start of the year for running a similar scam over in Verbier, as reported on our sister site Verbinet.com. Tourist office advice is to research the rental company before parting with any money and checking their credentials with the local tourist office. It is also worth checking if they are ATOL or ABTA registered, which means that your rights as a consumer are protected by certain guidelines.
Source : Le Dauphiné Libéré
