PT Barnum's competitor, David Hannum, may have said "there's a sucker born every minute" but it seems that most home exchangers don't fit that description. In fact, we know the exact proportion of home exchangers who are suckers. That figure is....10%.
How do I know exactly how many home exchangers are naive? Because 10% of them opted to join AllHomeExchange.com, the scammers who stole up to 21,000 swap listings from legitimate home exchange clubs and posted skeletal versions of them to its rogue site. AHE then used the email addresses associated with the real listings to solicit swappers to join its site.
When I received AHE's email I immediately saw that it was a scam. How could a new home exchange club already have 21,000 listings? And why would I give my credit card number to someone who had stolen my personal information and posted it without my permission?
Apparently a lot of home exchangers had the same reaction. AHE initially said it had "over 21,000 listings". Now it shows only about 2,000. The bad news, of course, is that about 2,000 people, or 10% of the original total were foolish enough to join a rogue site or too apathetic to remove their illegally posted information.
Home exchangers are not the only ones who are naive. The clubs themselves, in their reaction to this intrusion, showed their own ignorance. I will explain what I mean later. In the mean time, if anyone contacts you saying they are a member of AHE, let them know you won't swap with anyone who does business with thieves.
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