is this rental a scam??

This was sent from a yahoo address: (pictures were sent in an earlier email, ad was on Craigslist)

Hello Sara,

We are waiting for your reply though.Its available and the rate for the 2 nights is $550 plus a refundable security deposit of $200. The total rate is $750.

For immediate reservation: The calculation rate is (%50 rent)$275+ $200 refundable damage deposit=$475.
To make payment for booking and immediate reservation, we require Interac e-Transfer (www.interac.ca ) and it has low fees- hence we prefer it.
So to do it, you would make a payment using Interac e-transfer to our account which is email address: [email protected] , paying the fees at your end.Once your payment has been received via Interac, you will be sent the confirmation, pin codes and directions with payment receipt.

We're sure you will have an amazing time. So much to do and see.. and of course very relaxing.

Naturally if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We now offer % 8 discount for guests that are paying the full rent at the time of booking.

Katherine

It sounds like a scam.

Normal people have bank accounts and selecting an obscure Canadian payment system to make payment is suspicious when the average corner shop can accept payment by major credit cards.

http://www.interac.ca/en/interac-etransfer/etransfer-faq#etransferparticipants

To send an Interac e-Transfer, you need to have access to online banking at a participating financial institution.

Apart from Royal Bank of Canada the participating banks are pretty obscure. If you aren't Canadian it's unlikely you're going to have an account with any of them, and it's a silly restriction for the person to place on making payments.

Currently the Interac e-Transfer service is only available to those who bank at a Canadian financial institution and have a Canadian currency account. You will not be able to deposit your Interac e-Transfer to a foreign bank account.

Often because you won't know how to make payment using an obscure method, the scammer will try to make you disclose information you shouldn't. Treat with caution.

If you're American, it must be a scammer, and one who doesn't understand how the system works and is unaware that it doesn't work outside Canada and with anyone not a customer of a participating bank.

I note also.

Like using cash, you should send money transfers only to parties you know and trust. For most uses of the Interac e-Transfer service (sending money to family and friends, repaying IOUs, sending monetary gifts, etc.), you know the recipient well. For uses where you may not know the receiver well (e.g., online auction purchases), take the precautions you would take when making cash purchases.

Paying strangers who post ads using Western Union or an equivalent payment system is not a good idea. It has more to do with the recipient wishing to remain anonymous and untraceable rather than being economical, whereas a company would not need to hide their identity from you. Using such an obscure payment method is even more suspicious than the other methods scammers use, but he wants to baffle you with a relatively unknown system you aren't familiar with.

The writer is not from North America; she shows traits of both West African and Turkish writing.

An Interac e-Transfer transaction cannot be reversed once the recipient of the funds has deposited the transfer

There is nothing wrong with the Interac e-Transfer scheme. It's just that scammers like to use payment systems with which people are likely to be unfamiliar, to take advantage of victims. It happened with the UKASH payment system in the UK.

If someone purports to be a company, then the only method of making payment to them should be a transfer to a bank account in that name. Even then it isn't a guarantee that you can't be scammed, but when the seller/advertiser starts to stipulate obscure payment methods or ones that are the equivalent to making a cash payment, then you should walk away.

It looks as if this payment method won't work anyway, which suggests that the advertiser is working a fraud rather than providing a means for you to make payment.