Joshua Parfitt
FOUR families have now contacted the Olive Press in desperation as a bogus holiday rental company is scamming Brits out of thousands of pounds, meanwhile the website continues to defraud more and more customers.
One woman, Petra Deleslie, 42, had spent two years saving up for a family getaway following the untimely death of her mother from cancer, but soon realised she had lost her ?5,000 deposit when the company failed to respond.
Another Brit, Sarah Adam, called the Olive Press after reading our reporting on Dream Villas Spain, and suddenly realised her Marbella villa booked for four close friends and all their five daughters as a post-A Levels surprise was not for real.
It is a newspaper’s job to report on these scandals, not take action, but after our first article was published back in April the fraudulent website is still online.
We are now seeking legal action on behalf of those who booked villas in the Costa Blanca, and reported the site to a web hoster, but it should be far easier to get businesses like this shut down.
Dedicated police officers need to be made available for these crimes, or at the very least a cyber crime hotline promising rapid action.
As the internet becomes the marketplace for more and more of lives, conners can’t be allowed to keep killing our dreams.
