It's that time of year when families are scouting for holiday accommodation on the internet.

This usually ends well , but two Cape Town families were conned out of thousands of rands after booking a "luxurious" home on the coast.

Lee-Ann Christians said she and her cousins planned to go away this weekend, and found the holiday home advertised on the online site Gumtree.

"When I saw the pictures, at first I couldn't believe that the place was so cheap," said Christians.

The home in Pringle Bay, east of Cape Town, had five bedrooms, a pool, Jacuzzi, a beautiful view of the ocean. It was stylishly decorated with artwork and expensive fittings.

Christians said she spoke by telephone to a man who called himself Travis Bloomberg.

"He sounded like an older man, and was very professional," she said. "He was initially going to charge us R1300 for the deposit, but he brought it down to R900."

She said he insisted that they deposit the money from an Absa Cash Send account. Her boyfriend opened an account, transferred the money and Bloomberg withdrew it from an ATM.

He e-mailed Christians a receipt and promised to send her directions to the house - but never did.

"I tried to call but I got a message saying the number does not exist.

"Then I did an internet search and found several warnings about him," she said.

Yesterday, another advert was posted on Gumtree warning the public about Bloomberg.

An anonymous person wrote: "Due to the pics of the places he has on offer being so beautiful I am sure he gets a lot of people to fall for his little scam. I fell for it not too long ago when he advertised a place in Betty's Bay and I ended up paying R800 deposit which he obviously got away with." Other warnings say he uses several names including Yarrid Steinberg, Yarrid Gordon or Armand Favello.

A Cape Town man, who asked not to be named, said he was duped out of R4500 - in the same way after making a booking with Yarrid Gordon this month.

"After I paid the deposit, I couldn't get hold of him . then I knew I was scammed."

The Christians's cousins said they reported the man to the police's commercial crimes unit in Bellville.

Johannesburg's Highveld Stereo morning show host Darren Simpson said: "I feel these guys are scumbags and should be behind bars because they are robbing innocent people.

"I am very passionate about this because I was a victim of such a scam."

Last year, Simpson worked with police to try to nab a man from Cape Town who scammed more than 50 people in a similar way.

The con artist posted adverts for "luxurious holiday homes", but would disappear once the victims paid the deposits.