Anyone rent to travelling salesman. Scam?

[Paul Sandhu]

Had a call last Friday.  A lady affiliated with DirecTV wanted to rent a house for herself and 8 other salesman for 2 weeks.  They were going to do door-to-door sales in this area.  She wanted to pay with a credit card on Friday, and start renting the place Monday.  I told her to pay when you get here. Monday came and they never showed up.  Didn't respond to a text message either.  Now it's Tuesday and still no contact from them.  I called DirecTV, and they said any door-to-door sales would be a 3rd party.  

So I think it was some sort of scam.  I think she wanted to make a payment, but would want a refund a day or two later.  Something tells me I would have been out the money.  

What do you think?

She had reserved a 3 story house with 8 beds and 4 baths for $1200/week for 9 people.  I don't think she could have found a better deal anywhere else in this county.

[Mike Zipf]

Haven't heard of this as a specific scam but it sounds like it could be similar to a scam I have heard before. Essentially it goes that someone would buy something on a stolen credit card then ask for the money to be returned to their bank account or paypal account. The credit charge would most likely be challenged by the real owner of the card a few days later. Hard to defend against when not using an intermediary service which shoulders most of these risks, which most small businesses don't do.