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It is a new and perfidious fraud, the victims come from all over Germany and wanted to vacation in the Mecklenburg Lake District and in the north of Brandenburg. It is about internet fraud on rented houseboats, for which vacationers transfer deposits, for boats that do not exist.
According to the police in Neubrandenburg and Neuruppin, they are now investigating at least ten criminal complaints with reference to the website www.dein-hausbooturlaub.de, which is referred to as a fake. At an address at the city port of Güter an der Müritz, which the alleged fraudsters had given as their seat, injured parties who were looking for their houseboat were said to have reported. The website appears to be real, but is a fake, said a spokeswoman.
After initial announcements on Monday, the police had already warned of houseboat fraudsters. The blocking of the website has the highest priority, said a police spokeswoman. However, this was not yet possible because the Internet provider was not yet known. In this context, the officials pointed out two holiday home platforms linked to this houseboat website, which could also be fraudulent. At the weekend, for example, a vacationer arrived in Wittstock (Ostprignitz-Ruppin) in northern Brandenburg, where the vacation home offered did not even exist, it was said.
On the houseboat page, copies of boat photos and false information about allegedly low tariffs are advertised to interested parties, said the Neubrandenburg spokeswoman. However, after each payment of around 600 euros, any contact with the site operators breaks off, as reported. The service number listed in the imprint also leads nowhere.
Consumer protection: Missing printing is a warning signal
According to the police, the fake website contains boats that can actually be rented in the Mecklenburg Lake District – but from other companies. In Rheinsberg, a boat owner and shipowner reported that their boats were being offered for rent on the website, said a police spokeswoman in Neuruppin. The police in Neubrandenburg did not want to confirm a report by the NDR about initial investigative leads, according to which the account numbers given on the fake page would lead to the Netherlands and Norway.
The Mecklenburg Lake District and the Havel region, which stretches from Rheinsberg to Waren, are popular destinations for houseboats. Especially after the corona restrictions, tourism providers are hoping for this summer and numerous customers. You can arm yourself against such fraudulent schemes with rental house boats with a few tricks. Anja Offermann from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania consumer center told the NDR: “We always point out to consumers that the lack of an imprint is a signal that they are on a dubious site.” In the current scam, however, that did not help because the imprint contained false information. But anyone who checks whether the company is actually entered in the commercial register under the number given in the imprint will quickly come to the conclusion that it is a fake offer. Other references to dubious offers can include conspicuous Internet addresses, payment terms, an extremely low price, false seals of approval and too many positive customer reviews within a very short time.
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