A family in Gatineau, Que., says it has been scammed out of thousands of dollars after trying to book a vacation home in Florida through a website based in the United States.

Kirsten Coupland found the three-bedroom villa at Forgetaway.com, which lists it as a waterfront property in Miami Beach with a boat dock and inground pool that sleeps 10 and goes for $1,100 to $1,300 a week.

"There was nothing that made me think that there was anything fishy or untoward," Coupland recalled Monday. "It looked completely safe to use."

The website says it is affiliated with the Weather Channel Companies, and is "here to help you find the perfect vacation home rental." The Weather Channel Companies website confirms the company does own Forgetaway.com.

There is no evidence that the website knew about the scam. As of late Monday afternoon, Forgetaway.com had not returned calls from CBC News.

Through contact information provided on Forgetaway.com, Coupland contacted the supposed owners of the villa, who said they were in Europe and asked her to pay via a British credit card or a bank transfer.

Coupland checked out the address to make sure the home existed, contacted a bank in New York to ensure the account was in the name of the person who said he owned the villa, and paid more than $4,000 to secure the six-week rental.

The owners claimed a government disaster agency required the family to pay thousands of dollars for insurance, but the insurance form turned out to be a forgery, Coupland said.

No reply from website

Coupland said she tried to contact the manager of Forgetaway.com, but never got a reply.

She went after the people who claimed to own the home and eventually received an e-mail, supposedly from Ghana, West Africa, that read: "Why are you fooling around. There was never any transaction between us. All the details are forged, you are chasing shadows."

Coupland has contacted Miami police, the FBI and the RCMP in an effort to get her money back, but to no avail.

"The frustrating part is that I feel completely helpless," she said. "I don't know what else I can do."

Now, she is very leery about doing any business online.

According to Leo Janveau, head of the fraud section at the Ottawa police, there are many variations of this type of fraud, and scammers have infiltrated a large number of legitimate websites.

"With the advent of technology nowadays, it becomes very, very easy to be able to scam," he said.

He added that, given the low probability of catching the people involved in this case, it's unlikely any police force will put resources into solving it.