At least one local business has been targeted – punter makes a booking from overseas, agrees the price and sends advance payment which covers the full rental plus an additional amount “to cover holiday spending”.  The payment is cleared into the victim’s account, who is then asked to forward the balance to a third party (hire-car, bank, whatever).  If he does so, he will find that the entire original sum has retrospectively disappeared.  Too good to be true?  Yes indeed.  Incidentally, the police were informed and mentioned that this is quite a common fraud, they had one recent case involving the theft of £7,000.