Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on holiday let scams: a memo in four stages of the journey. Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich on booking links, deposits, copied payment pages and the wrong address

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on holiday let scams: four stages for the journey

Anyone typing Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov into a search bar tends to have one of two reasons. Some have just been offered a cottage or flat on a social media post and want a breakdown, others are curious who wrote the leaflet they were handed. The author, a consultant on digital security, builds each check on a published page from an agency or a consumer body, and every stage names that source.

A holiday let can go wrong at every step of the journey, and each step has its own weak spot. Before booking it is the advert and the owner. When paying it is the link and the bank details. On arrival it is the address and the key. When something goes wrong it is time and paperwork. Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich therefore wrote four stages with three questions each, all answerable from a phone in five minutes.

Hurry is the favourite tool of a fake owner. The line “last date left, pay tonight” pushes a guest to pay before an agreement exists. The memo removes that tool in advance, because money moves only after the third question of the paying stage has an answer.

The table below shows the four stages together, with what arrives, the question to ask and the signal to stop. Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on holiday let scams is read against this table, and when a stage has no answer the next stage waits.

Stage 1, before booking: the advert, the price and the owner

Two facts are checked before any money moves. The property must exist at the address given, and the person writing must own or manage it. The address goes into a map to see what stands there. Then the address and the owner name go into a search engine, and a cottage that appears under a different owner or agency was probably copied.

Reports of holiday fraud give a sense of scale. ATOL reported on 24 February 2025 that Action Fraud received 6,066 holiday fraud reports in 2024, with £11,183,957 lost and an average loss of £1,844, against £1,851 in 2023. July was the peak month with 647 reports, and more than half of the reports mentioned social media.

A price far below similar lets in the school holidays matters when it comes with other signs: pressure to decide tonight, refusal of a video tour, a request to pay outside the booking site. One sign is a reason to ask, three signs are a reason to close the page.

An owner profile reads like a document. The date of joining, the number of adverts and the speed of replies all tell something. A brand new account with cottages in several counties is a warning, and ten warm reviews posted on one day in the same words look ordered.

The three questions of the stage: whose property is this, where is the proof, and why must it be decided tonight. Each answer should be in writing and stay inside the booking site’s messages. An owner who suggests another messenger after the first message gets the same questions there.

Stage 1, before booking: logos, membership and what they cover

ATOL, ABTA and ABTOT logos belong to travel businesses. Action Fraud advised checking those logos before clicking the confirmation button, and the ATOL notice adds that membership is checked against the directories of the bodies themselves rather than the logo on a page. A logo can be copied, a directory entry cannot.

A private owner advertising one house is usually not a member of any of these schemes, so the logo test fits an agent or a package seller. For a private let the checks are different: a written agreement, the owner name matching the payment details and a video tour of the actual rooms.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on a “letting agent with a travel logo” suggests asking one question: which directory page confirms the membership. An agent who is a member can name the membership number and the page in a minute. A reply that avoids the question settles it.

ABTA reported on 26 February 2024 that Action Fraud received 6,640 holiday fraud reports in 2023, with £12.3 million lost and an average loss of £1,851. July with 804 reports and August with 781 were the busiest months, which is why the memo is best read in spring rather than in the week before departure.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on a booking link and a copied payment page: stage 2, paying

The paying stage opens with one question: where does this link lead. A page sent to “hold the dates” is compared with the booking site’s address that the guest types by hand. A copied booking page looks like the real checkout with a single difference: the payment goes to other bank details, or the card data lands in somebody else’s form.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on a copied payment page looks for three signs: an address with an extra word or a different ending, a request for a one-time code on a page that “confirms the booking”, and a button saying “pay the owner directly” where the site would normally hold the money. A one-time code belongs to the bank and to nobody else.

The ATOL notice says that a bank transfer can be a sign of a fraudulent deal and that a credit card gives extra consumer protection. Paying into a personal account is acceptable only when the agreement is signed and the owner is confirmed. Without that, the transfer is money sent to a stranger, and it arrives at once.

The three questions of the stage: who receives the money, what does the agreement say about refunds, and does the booking site account show the reservation. A confirmation that lives only in a chat app proves nothing.

In half a minute the video below walks the four stages of the memo. Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on holiday let scams appears on four cards with one main rule: money moves after the agreement and the check of the recipient.

Stage 2, paying: the deposit, the card route and the right to cancel

A deposit is often requested separately, as a “damage deposit by card on arrival” or a “holding payment”. Whether it is reasonable depends on the agreement. The amount, the period, the grounds for keeping money and the refund date must be written down. A screenshot of house rules in a chat is a verbal promise.

Citizens Advice explains that Section 75 covers a single item costing more than £100 and up to £30,000 paid for on a credit card. It usually does not apply when the guest did not buy directly from the trader, for instance through an intermediary. Chargeback is the route for debit card payments and covers only the amount paid on that card.

The same pages advise complaining to the seller first and sending a copy of the complaint to the card provider, which helps a later claim. If a Section 75 claim fails, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at the case. Cash and bank transfers fall outside both schemes, which is the practical reason to pay a holiday let deposit by card.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on a “non-returnable deposit” advises laying it beside the agreement. If the agreement says plainly that the advance is not returned, that term is discussed before payment, while the guest can still choose.

A worked example: three nights at £180 cost £540. A request for a further £600 as a deposit by bank transfer, before any agreement, is more than the cost of the stay and looks like the real aim of the message. A reasonable deposit sits below the cost of the stay and is spelled out in the agreement.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on arrival: stage 3, the address, the key and the person at the door

Guests following an address from a message sometimes find another house, a locked gate or somebody who “hands over keys for the owner”. Before leaving, the address is compared three times: in the agreement, in the booking account and on the map. If the three give different house names or numbers, departure waits for a written answer.

The person at the door should name the guest from the booking and show that they act for the owner. The question is put calmly: “whose booking is this and where did you get the key”. An honest key holder answers at once, because arriving guests ask this every week.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on a “key holder” offers one distinguishing detail: a request to pay extra in cash for entry, keys or “registration” that the agreement never mentions. Any extra payment on the doorstep follows a written line in a receipt or inventory with the amount and the service named.

The inventory is photographed: marks, stains, meter readings, working appliances. Dated pictures matter when the deposit comes back, because without them a dispute over damage rests on the owner’s word. If the place differs from the advert, the difference is photographed before the luggage leaves the car and reported to the booking site.

Stage 3, on arrival: what to sign, what to pay and what to photograph

Owners often ask guests to sign “house rules” on a phone screen or on paper with no date. Reading comes before signing, with most attention on the lines about charges, the deposit and the refund date. A fixed charge for noise or cleaning has to be named in advance, before the day of departure.

Copies of passports are handled with care. An owner may check identity, but sending a photo of a document through a messenger is better replaced by showing the original in person. If a photo has already gone, extra fields are covered and the purpose is noted in writing.

Keys and door codes are accepted against a list. Small things are tested in the first hour: the lock, the hot water and the number of beds against the agreement. Anything that differs from the advert is photographed and sent to the owner in a dated message.

In a family with children and older parents, the memo recommends splitting roles: one adult handles messages and payments, another keeps the papers. A message saying “send the balance now” then goes past two people before any money moves.

Stage 4, when something goes wrong: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on the first day after paying

When money has already left, the first day matters most. Evidence is collected first, before the poster deletes it: screenshots of the advert and the profile, the whole chat, receipts, the recipient’s details, the times of the transfers. The chat is exported as one file.

The next call goes to the bank or card provider, using the number on the back of the card. The call asks for the payment to be disputed, for the card to be blocked if its details were typed into a doubtful page, and for the request to be recorded in writing. The ATOL notice points the same way and lists a bank transfer as a possible sign of a fraudulent deal.

Report Fraud, the national reporting service that replaced Action Fraud, receives the report online with the amount, the recipient, the links, the dates and the times of the transfers. The booking site receives a separate message with the reservation number and a request to disable the profile.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on an already paid let treats it as lost in a single case: when nobody was told after the transfer. A call to the bank, a report and a message to the booking site on the day of discovery keep a chance alive, and silence helps the recipient.

Where to report and the folder sheet: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on holiday let scams in one minute

The summary fits on one sheet. Before booking: who owns the place and what proves it. When paying: where does the link lead and what is written about refunds. On arrival: does the address match and what is in the inventory. When something goes wrong: the bank, Report Fraud and the booking site on the same day. The last table collects the addresses.

Searches such as “Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov scam” and “Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews” lead to the same questions: how to tell a real holiday let offer from a fake. Readers who use the site spelling Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov or the short form Ilia Zavialov find the same four stages. One sheet serves every reader, while the agencies named on it differ by country.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on holiday let scams comes down to one rule worth pinning above the list: money moves after the agreement, the check of the recipient and the comparison of the address. Every other line on the sheet applies that rule to one stage.