The territory's Department of Tourism is giving Yukon businesses a heads-up about a potentially fraudulent website.

Yukonvacation.com is an attractive and well-designed site that purports to connect travellers with accommodations, tour operators and vehicle rentals in Canada's North.

But the web page has raised some red flags and prompted a warning letter sent from the department to businesses named on the site:

"It has been brought to our attention that your business is listed on the website noted above. We have also been advised that some of the information regarding your operation may be incorrect or that the operator of this website may not have an agreement with you to sell your product.

"We suggest that you review the information regarding your business and if you have any concerns or questions, that you deal directly with the party hosting the site, a Mr. Tim Johnson, who can be reached by e-mail through the website."

Robert Clark, manager of tourism development, told the Star a local business owner called his attention to the site because it looks suspicious.

Much of the information on the site is correct and at first blush looks legitimate, but a closer look reveals some inaccuracies.

The names of certain businesses are misspelled, Frances Lake is spelled "Francis Lake", for instance, and many of the prices quoted are out of date or just plain wrong. Then there are descriptions and photographs that don't fit with the places they describe.

A particularly worrisome fact is that no one's name is attached to the site, and the only way to contact its operators is by e-mail.

Clark said he received the name mentioned in his letter from a response to an an e-mail he sent via the website. He also said there is some evidence the site is being managed from Nevada, but would not elaborate on where he gleaned that information.

"The telltale sign for me is the contact information," said Carson Schiffkorn, owner of the Inn on the Lake south of Whitehorse.

"There's no phone, no fax number, no e-mail, no name. Most reputable businesses will have a face to them - if they don't, I wonder why."

Schiffkorn said he has seen operations like this one before. He said he has had guests arrive saying they've already paid for their stay, with a receipt to prove it - but Schiffkorn had never seen the money.

The owner of the award-winning inn managed to track down the person behind one of the sites and demand his money. He received his cash and vowed never to do business with a middleman who appeared out of the blue.

Even when the guests hadn't paid through the site, there were still problems. The site provides descriptions of the accommodations which are "embellished," Schiffkorn said, "so the customer would already start somewhat dissatisfied.

"... If this is the same as the other company - and I think it is - I won't do business with them."

People at Fraserway RV, a company which rents recreational vehicles across the country, have had their eyes on sites such as this one for a while.

"Our head office has encountered this business before and it is not a legitimate company," Whitehorse general manager John Troyer said of the site.

The company's national head of customer service said that and more.

"It's very suspicious," said Bernie Lehman, from Fraserway's Vancouver office. "A proper company will always have at least a mailing address."

Lehman has followed several scam sites that resemble yukonvacation.com, and has even gotten as far as finding out the names of the people behind them, but as far as he knows, no one has been convicted of operating such a site.

"I've heard from people who are desperate," Lehman said of effects of Internet fraud. "They've spent four, five, six thousand dollars and they don't even have a reservation - nowhere to stay, nothing."

It's the consumer who bears the greatest burden of fake websites, he said. Many of the fraudulent sites he has seen cater to German tourists who want to travel in North America, making it more difficult to get the proper authorities on the case.

"Interpol is swamped with things like this," he said, referring to the pan-European police service. "There's not much they can do about one little site that disappears and pops again under a different URL."

In the Yukon, the Department of Tourism is advising tour and hospitality operators to contact the people behind the site directly for more information, but that may not bring back a satisfactory response.

Ken and Liesel Brigg, the owners of Yukon Forest Cabins, did exactly what Clark suggested and sent yukonvacation.com a message asking that their name and information be removed from the site.

The cheery reply read: "We are happy to remove your business!"

Days later, a photo and description of Yukon Forest Cabins remains on the site.

This week, when contacted by the Star via e-mail for comment on this story, the answer from yukonvaction.com was: "We are not interested at all to respond, print what you like you'll do it anyways."

There is no name or further contact information attached to this response.

"They're just so cocky," Lehman said. "There you see the good and the bad of technology - because you can hide behind a web page."

Liesel Briggs said she doesn't think the government is doing enough to stop these kinds of website operators. Clark said his department has no option but to act "prudently."

Painting a legitimate business as a fraudulent one would not only be irresponsible, but could easily land the government in court.

And even when the charge is well-founded, trying to put a stop to an American selling Canadian vacations to Germans becomes a jurisdictional nightmare.

So, for the time being, consumers and business owners alike will have to rely on their own research and good judgment when making or accepting reservations on-line.