Four years ago, Joel Kramer was scouring vacation rental sites for a Rhode Island beach house for his family of five. A promising message from a property manager with "Golden Vacation" landed in his inbox: A three-bedroom was available for 10 days in early August. The house checked all of Kramer’s boxes, except one.

The rental didn’t exist.

"I e-mailed, no response. I e-mailed again, no response. We called and got a Verizon response saying this number is no longer active," said Kramer, 74, a neuropsychologist in San Francisco, recalling the day before his family was supposed to move into the rental. "We went, ‘Oh, s---.’"

The Kramers had been scammed.

Travelers have been conned since time immemorial, but today’s scams are more insidious and sophisticated than such old tricks as the b

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