The Villa Collective has implemented measures to make our website as secure as possible.
While the vast majority of members will have a smooth and trouble-free experience, as with any online business our website is unfortunately susceptible to online fraud.
By following our security guidelines and being aware of these illegal practices, the risk of becoming a victim yourself will be greatly reduced.
Phishing is when a fraudster obtains your personal information in order to steal your online identity. If successful, the fraudster can break into your email account and respond to enquiries masquerading as you, potentially causing not only the loss of a booking to yourself, but also financial losses to the guest.
This is a problem widespread throughout the internet but especially prevalent in the accommodation sector.
You can minimise the risk of phishing in a number of ways:
All email correspondence goes through TVC's secure server, which means that while you can correspond with potential guests via your regular email provider, they never see your actual email address.
By withholding the details of your email, you are denying fraudsters the opportunity to access your personal email account illegally.
Fraudsters may send you fake emails in order to trick you into revealing personal information or send you links to fake websites. The Villa Collective will never ask you to confirm your account details, reveal your passwords or renew your membership by email. If you are not 100% confident of the authenticity of a request, don't act on it and contact us via our Support Centre .
TVC has no control over your personal email account. Make sure that your email provider operates adequate security measures against fraudsters illegally accessing the account, and that your password is changed regularly.
To protect against fraudsters accessing your account and changing the contact information for the property, whenever Account Overview or Hosting & Management are edited, a warning email will be sent to you in order to flag that change.
This means that if a fraudster attempts to steal your identity by changing the contact information on the listing itself, you will be notified and TVC can take action to disable the account temporarily and rectify the problem.
All membership fees are paid securely via the My Villa page on your account through our payment provider Stripe .
You will not receive calls from anyone connected with TVC asking for your credit card details for renewals, special offers or anything else.
If you receive a call asking for this information, tell them that you are aware of their intentions and hang up. Never give your credit card details to anyone who contacts you by phone.
Before making an enquiry, all guests must register an account with TVC which includes verifying their mobile telephone number.
This will greatly reduce the likelihood of fake enquiries from fraudsters, but beware of anyone who contacts you with the sole purpose of obtaining your personal information. If you suspect that someone is contacting you for this purpose, call them. It is highly unlikely that a fraudster will accept your call and he/she will most likely lose interest in you as a potential target.