Scam

[Donna1278]

Our cottage was used to scam people looking for long-term rentals.

Someone rented our cottage for one night. They didn’t have any reviews on file so I asked a lot of questions and approved the booking. I met the person when he arrived and he didn’t exactly look like the picture on the profile, but I couldn’t be sure. He seemed a bit nervous. It turns out that he/they used pictures from our listing and advertised our place for rent on Facebook. They spent the afternoon giving tours to potential renters. They offered it to at least one woman for $1300 per month and $1200 deposit, to be paid in cash. The guy gave her a key (which was fake). She was suspicious so came to a neighbor of the cottage to ask what they knew about the owner. She didn’t pay, but it’s likely others were scammed. 

[Anonymous]

@Donna1278   Wow, that sounds like a really dodgy dude. Definitely report him, but of course it's easy for scammers to create any number of new profiles. You can bolster your rules by prohibiting unregistered visitors from entering the property, and use all the means at your disposal to monitor the place so you know if someone's violating the rule. You can also require guests to present ID at check-in. And you can increase your Minimum Stay as an additional way of raising the bar of entry. But sadly, anywhere with a shortage of affordable housing will be crawling with scammers trying to prey on people's pursuit of their basic needs, and hosts have to be on guard about that.

[Quincy]

Hi there @Donna1278, I was wondering whether you have reported this to Airbnb? 

[Donna1278]

Yes, I have reported it several times, and I keep getting messages from different people (or bots) at Airbnb asking me to start over and explain the situation again. I have given Airbnb the police case number and the name of the officer handling the case. Someone at Airbnb finally left a message for me (4 days after I tried to report), and I have not yet called back; at this point any action they could take is probably too little too late, as it's likely that the scammer (profile name: **) has moved on to another town, a new profile, and another unsuspecting Airbnb host. The scammer's profile is still active 6 days into this scam, despite numerous efforts on my part to get Airbnb to flag the account. I have called, reported the account through the app, messaged through the app, and tagged Airbnb support on Twitter. 

Since I posted, I've been made aware of facebook posts by people who were victims of the scam. One woman said she gave the scammer $2500 and knew of 10 other people who had done the same. I'm sure they aren't the only ones. 

I'm implementing more strict requirements for guests at our rental, and I'm actively working on getting off of the Airbnb platform and putting it back onto the long-term rental market, which will disappoint many people who love our cottage and come back to it whenever they're in town. It's a shame really, because it's a rather unique, charming, and desirable rental in a part of California where there is more demand than supply. 

My message to other hosts is that you should take action to protect yourself. I discovered the hard way that it's almost impossible to get timely assistance from Airbnb. The representatives who answered the phone when I called, twice, said they were sorry for my "inconvenience" and told me they weren't authorized to help me and would pass it on to someone higher up, which resulted in a series of what looked like form emails. One misstated my complaint in very legalistic language (it seems to imply that I was a guest complaining about an accommodation or a host), and another said "We find that communicating directly with your tenant is the simplest way to address these types of complaints," never mind that my "tenant" was a ruthless felon. 

Of course it's always the case that there are unscrupulous people everywhere, and they make it difficult for everyone else who's trying to host or rent honestly on the Airbnb platform. I guess I was naive in thinking that Airbnb's process of verifying identity was a real thing. Be careful.  😞

**[Sensitive information removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Donna1278]

Update, the scammer has been arrested. He was previously wanted for embezzlement, and he also conducted the same scam with other airbnb rentals in the area (Central Coast of California). The police have identified $12,000 so far that he has stolen, just through our rental alone. I'm certain there are other unidentified victims who have not come forward because they are afraid to contact police due to their immigration status.