Holidaymakers are being warned to be aware of a scam holiday rental website targeting those wanting to book in France, with users and operators widely complaining of fraud and potential identity theft.
The website rivierabudget.com was only created on July 3 this year but already holidaymakers are being warned against it.
The site appears to be an online holiday rental reservation portal, offering “low-cost accommodation everywhere in France”, it states. The homepage allows searchers to choose a villa or apartment, the destination, the arrival and departure dates, and the number of people - exactly like a normal reservation page.
The site has ‘legal details’ and claims to be based at a prestigious address on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
The website appears legitimate and all its listings are of real placesRivierabudget.com
Apart from one small bug early on - in which it appears users could see only properties from France even if choosing another country - there are no other clear signs that anything is amiss. In fact, because the site’s content is stolen (copy and pasted from actual listings elsewhere), the site appears legitimate,
The holiday lets listed exist, meaning that bookers can search for the lets elsewhere, see reviews, and compare the apparently ‘low prices’ with those on other sites. This makes the website appear real.
As the rental website is a scam any purported booking cannot be used.
‘Everything seemed credible’
One victim told FranceInter: “The reservation went well. Everything seemed credible. I signed up, and received an email sending me towards a payment platform.”
The payment portal is based in Spain, even though the company purports to offer accommodation in France. It was only when his bank blocked the transaction that the victim realised he had been scammed. Luckily, he did not lose money.
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Other victims have not been so lucky, and have lost hundreds of euros.
Professional, genuine rental operators have also noticed that the site is scamming them too, by copying and using their listings from other well-known sites such as Airbnb and Abritel, and posing as them to get bookings. These operators are concerned this could cause them reputational damage.
“‘If we have customers coming up to our door saying “we've booked” when in fact they have not booked it does not reflect well on us,” said one operator in the Tarn department, who was alerted to the scam by another operator and her local tourism office, to France 3 Occitanie.
Several professionals in the Tarn have reported complaints about fraud and identity theft. As an example, the site offers 125 rentals in Castres, 259 in Albi and 33 in Mazamet.
The website also offers accommodation in many other parts of France, including Calvados, Eure, and Alpes-Maritimes, where other operators have also reported fraudulent attempts.
Signs of a scam
Despite the sophistication of the site, there are some warning signs:
Firstly, the site was made only very recently. It does not have a long track-record or third-party reviews testifying to its good service or reputation.
Secondly, if searching for the rentals elsewhere, every listing can be seen to be copied and used identically as others.
Thirdly, payments are required to be made into a Spanish bank account, not a secure portal in France.
The Gendarmerie's cyber-investigators have also said that the site’s apparent ‘legal notices’ were copied from the site of a genuine company in Nice, which has also lodged a complaint.
Fraudulent rental websites are a well-known phenomenon, and tend to pop up around holiday times with scammers seeking to cash in on people looking for a deal.
Figures from Airbnb show that between March 2023 and March 2024, “nearly 2,500 third-party phishing sites worldwide” were uncovered. One gendarme interviewed by France said that he receives similar reports every week.
