A Wiltshire holidaymaker who was scammed out of hundreds of pounds on social media has warned others to be aware when booking trips online.

Jemma Brown, from Devizes, thought she had grabbed a bargain when she found a Majorcan villa advertised on Facebook in 2019.

She messaged the person claiming to rent it out and communicated with them through WhatsApp and text, before transferring a £300 deposit.

But the Wiltshire mum was left “feeling like an idiot” when she received a message on the day of the trip cancelling her booking due to an “emergency water leak”.

Despite being promised a full refund, the Browns never got their deposit back and have not heard from the account since.

“It looked a bit too good to be true, but I had looked at other prices for villa type holidays and thought ‘it’s not too bad’”, she said.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald: The villa Mrs Brown was advertisedThe villa Mrs Brown was advertised (Image: Jemma Brown)

“He only took bank transfer so massive alarm bells were ringing but I carried on… he used tactics to make me feel at ease and, looking back at it now, I think ‘what an absolute idiot’.

“Holidays are really precious, and we don’t have money that we can just chuck away so it was a big deal for us… it was a very expensive lesson to learn.”

The holiday was salvaged by securing a different accommodation on the day, but the family was left out of pocket.

While Mrs Brown admitted she felt “embarrassed” by the experience, she has spoken out about what happened to her in order to warn others about making the same mistake.

This included a recent TV appearance when she was featured on BBC Breakfast.

Mrs Brown said: “I talk about it because it’s so important that with things like holidays, which you invest a lot of time, money and energy into, you do it through somewhere reputable and don’t use social media websites.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald: The family salvaged their Majorcan holidayThe family salvaged their Majorcan holiday (Image: Jemma Brown)

“Just don’t do it because it’s massive… around £7.9 million is duped out of people by holiday scams every year.”

Despite Mrs Brown speaking out, she claims her scammer is still active on Facebook under various names.

“He’s still at large and ripping people off to this day”, she added. “He uses various names and Facebook have no reporting mechanisms for somebody ripping you off.

“Nothing has changed between 2019 and now.

“Action Fraud have got numbers against this guy left right and centre, but you shouldn’t be able to advertise things like villas on Facebook because it’s so easy to make them look genuine.”