HAVE you, like me, spent the last few months dreaming of your holidays? As summer approached and the fears grew that you cannot rely on the Irish weather for anything approaching a sunny spell, I started -- at first idly and then with serious intent -- scanning the internet for possible bargains.

The mood in our house went something like this. First nonchalance: "Will we have a summer holiday this year with the recession and everything?" This moved quickly on to wistfulness: "It would be really nice to get away." Then on to justification: "I genuinely need a summer holiday." Finally, we arrived at desperation: "Book, book anything -- we've got to get away, who cares about the money."

It was thus buoyed up by thoughts of sunshine and dining al fresco that I first visited holidaylettings.co.uk , searching for a holiday home in Spain to rent for my family. It's a website where villa and apartment owners advertise their properties directly to the public, cutting out the middlemen and keeping the costs down. On it we found the perfect house, Villa Ibiza, in Javea on the Costa Blanca. We emailed the company who managed the property, morairaway.com, did a bit of haggling, got a good deal and booked. We were delighted. Not normally being organised enough to book very far in advance, we never usually get to look forward to our holidays but this year, having booked early, we were able to while away our time anticipating the sangria by the pool.

Tony Duncan-Smith in morairaway.com was very professional and helpful too, sending us a comprehensive contract and arranging for there to be food in the villa on our arrival. We couldn't have been happier. Until last Monday, that is, when we received an email from holidaylettings.co.uk, advising us that morairaway.com was an elaborate fraud which had taken holiday bookings and thousands of euros from hundreds of people throughout Europe -- ourselves included. The current estimated extent of the fraud is in excess of €1m.

To be honest, we couldn't believe it. We thought it must be a mistake. We'd been looking at pictures of our villa for the past three months -- it couldn't all be a scam. But, as in all forms of grieving, denial soon gave way to anger. How did this happen? Surely someone's supposed to check if these villas were genuine properties? We'd found this villa on one of the biggest holiday rental websites on the net. A reputable site, one we'd every confidence in using. We're so used to booking things online we never think about how vulnerable we actually are in doing so.

So how could we be so easily exposed and duped?

Well, apparently it's easier than you think to copy and paste photos of villas you don't own onto the internet and then take money for their rental. And there's very little help when it happens to you. Holidaylettings.co.uk said it was just an agent so there's nothing it could do and advised us to contact the gardai, our bank, and our insurers. Our local gardai told us it was a matter for the fraud squad. The fraud squad said that as the crime was committed outside the jurisdiction it's very hard to prosecute but they'll do what they can.

Our bank said there was little it could do, because the money has gone, but it'll look into it. Our insurers were very clear that they don't cover this kind of loss. Nobody at all, in fact, seems to care that we have been robbed of over €4,000, and have travel arrangements booked and paid for to Spain but nowhere to stay when we get there.

I spoke at length to Kate Stinchcombe, communications manager at holidaylettings.co.uk. At least 40 people booked morairaway properties through its website, with an average loss of €3,000 each. She said they take pains to check that all advertisers on their site are legitimate. When I pointed out that in this case, clearly, their checks were inadequate and there should be some further protection for people renting properties through them, she said that holidaylettings had looked into offering a rental guarantee scheme but had decided against it at this time. When I asked if the reason holidaylettings doesn't offer a guarantee scheme is because it would impact on their profits, she declined to comment.

Websites don't all offer the same level of protection when you book holidays through them and most people don't realise that. Ownersdirect.co-.uk and holidayrentals.co.uk, holidaylettings' main competitors, both offer a free rental guarantee scheme which compensates holidaymakers if a villa listing proves bogus. So if we'd booked a morairaway villa through those websites -- as did 30 people using the holidayrentals site -- we'd be compensated now up to €4,000. However, because we booked through holidaylettings -- an almost identical site -- we get nothing.

Holiday rental websites operate by charging a fee to villa owners advertising on them and they have multi-million euro turnovers and very healthy profit margins. But unless consumers demand they offer rental guarantee schemes and better protection against fraud, they won't do so. When you are booking a holiday on one of these websites, you should check whether they offer a rental guarantee and what kind of checks they undertake on the properties they advertise. If you feel it's inadequate -- don't book through them.

But it's also a case of 'buyer beware' when booking online. Paul Durrant of the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland says there are many simple checks individuals can undertake themselves when making a booking or a purchase online. Check the telephone number and the address of the company you're dealing with in their local area phone book or yellow pages. These books are available online and you can see very quickly if a company is at the address it says it is. A company with no telephone number or address should ring alarm bells.

Do a Google search on the sellers or company's name to crosscheck what comes up against the details they've given you. Look for testimonials or reviews from other customers. Put the address of the holiday rental into Google maps to make sure it exists. Paying by credit card or using Paypal is safer than cash. If you do find illegality on the internet, you can report it at www.hotline.ie. Basically, do whatever you can to check that the deal you are making is with a legitimate seller and not someone who's going to take your money and run.

As for us, we've learnt a hard and valuable lesson. No longer will we be quite so trusting when making internet bookings or so naive as to think that big websites are looking after our interests. As for our summer holiday -- well, it's a toss-up between paying a second time for accommodation so as not to lose the travel costs or staying home. Currently, it looks like it's sangria in the back garden this year.