'Max' booted - account removed

[Flavia202]

Hi everyone. So someone called 'Max' (1 verification) - no profile pic - contacted me thru airbnb but wanted to book outside of the app via whatsapp. I was surprised that his/(her?) whatsapp number actually showed up in the message and wasn't auto deleted.  See copy of the message below:

Max

1 verification

Greetings Flavia!                   

I am looking for a nice home and I want to reserve get in contact with me ⒲⒣⒜⒯⒮⒜⒫⒫ **

Anyway, Max struck out. Lol! His/(her?) account was removed by the Airbnb Trust and Safety Team for violating airbnb's Terms of Service.

**[Personal information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Elena87]

@Flavia202 

It's a Moscow registered telephone number from provider Beeline. 

It's a crusty old deceit,  glad it was detected but I hope airbnb take note of the use of enclosed alphanumerics text in the message to prevent it going out in the first place in future.

[Flavia202]

Thanks for the intel @Elena87 . It's the first one I've encountered with enclosed alphanumerics text in the message.  People trying too hard to get around the system. Airbnb was quick to detect it so yes, maybe they'll soon be able to delete those types of messages before they reach us.

[Pat271]

The WhatsApp part is easy to detect, but the graphics representing the phone number are harder. They can’t just be matched against certain text sequences, although technology is advancing to the point where images can be recognized. Pretty sure this was flagged with an algorithm (probably a regular expression) on the WhatsApp text.

Anyway, I’m glad it was detected. Agree with @Elena87  that it would be nice if things like this were detected before they ever got to us.