It probably is.

One of my buddies was planning a trip to a sunny locale for his vacation and wanted to do it up luxurious and special.

He found a site that specialized in luxury villas and proceeded to communicate with the "intermediary" for the villa owners.   There were a lot of things that, added together, made him back away from the arrangement.  Chief amongst them being the guy telling him that he couldn't give him the actual address to the place to protect the owner's privacy.

He could be lucky and get his entire deposit back.  Or, not so much.  Either way, he learned a lesson.  

Trust.  But verify.