Account locked due to fraudulent payment - falsely accused..

[Stephen1597]

Hello all!

I am an Experiences host for nearly 2 years with hundreds of bookings and nearly 300 reviews. However, today I was surprised to see that my account got locked due to security reasons. All of my upcoming reservations have been canceled, and I was not paid by Airbnb for my Experiences that happened yesterday (value 1000 USD approximately)

The explanation from Airbnb regarding the closure of my account is absolutely ridiculous:
“Your account was removed because we determined that reservation ** is associated with fraudulent activity.”

The funny thing is that I am not even able to find reservation **, this is not even a booking of mine.

Over the past months I am getting a huge amount of messages from potential “customers” who ask to communicate outside Airbnb. I report them as these are scammers. I am also getting scam bookings. I receive an email of a new booking, seconds later it gets canceled. Some time later I get an email that that booking was involved with a fraudulent payment. So Airbnb has a lot of issues with fraud.

But now I am falsely accused of being involved in one of these fraudulent payments, and it is truly insane. I am not getting the right support from Airbnb, as their emails seem to be standard responses. I am a victim of Airbnb’s incorrect judgment here, most probably done by an automated program.

This mistake from Airbnb is costing me a huge amount of money, all of my future bookings got canceled with a value of 30000 USD. This is a big part of my business, and Airbnb is causing the downfall of that.

What can I do? I have already done the following:

• Responded to the Airbnb Trust team
• Contacted Airbnb help on Twitter, no help. They just said I need to wait
• Filed a complaint on the Airbnb website P2B. This complaint gets redirected to the Trust team, and I get the same standard response.

I have literally send them all the proof that there are frequently fraudulent payments for one of my Experiences where it always goes like this:

1. Customer books for a ridiculous amount as it is regarding a private speedboat tour and therefore expensive if you buy for 10 people.

2. 1 minute after booking the booking gets canceled.

3. The day after I receive an email that I should be careful that the payment of that customer was fraudulent.

Seems to me that one of these payments somehow was linked to me, but it is absolutely not. I have all the proof that I am a fair host and I would not do that, but all Airbnb does is getting back to me with the same standard message:

“We’ve given your case and its details careful consideration. At this time, we won’t be able to restore your account or offer you additional support on this matter”

I am devastated by this, and it frustrates me that they are treating a 5-star host like garbage. Any help or advice is appreciated.

@Bhumika , I got your name from another forum and they told me that you might be able to assist me with this. I really hope that you can. 😞

The account linked to my Host account is ** - but I could not post with this as the account is locked.

**[E-mail address removed due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Helen744]

@Stephen1597 I do wonder at you persisting with this 'experience ' if it is frequently targeted in this way. I am not sure how experiences are booked but I thought they were controlled by the host and provided by the host , if not then maybe ask the organizer of this 'experience ' a little more as the booking is most likely theirs and you are an 'associate ' and facilitator. Without a little more info then its difficult to comment at all, as far as I know all 'new experiences ' are suspended , so how long has this 'experience been operational ?... Good Luck ...H

[Stephen1597]

Thanks for your response @Helen744 , let me elaborate.

I've had about 10 Experiences listings since beginning of 2022. I've sold hundreds of bookings and have close to 300 five star ratings. One of my experiences is an experience that is priced higher than others, as it is a private speedboat experience. This private speedboat experience was booked numerous of times by fake accounts who were then canceled due to fraudulent payment. Me as a host has nothing to do with that, it would be an insane assumption by Airbnb to not only think that, but also to just close my account based on this reason.

Airbnb never once contacted me regarding this matter, and the fact that they won't investigate this issue further now really pisses me off. I know that I don't have anything to do and Airbnb basically is shutting down my business, and also not paying me the money that they owe me as I had experiences yesterday where I hosted customers.

[Helen744]

@Stephen1597 so you run an Airbnb as well and that has been shut down ? as well as all your 'experiences'?.... I did not know hosts could host so many experiences but I imagine this is temporary . Keep trying and sometimes everything just turns up again but cancelling bookings seems very brutal and something everyone is interested to know how it turns out for you . Try and tell us a little more and i am sure someone here may be able to chime in .I think i am the only one awake but @ bhumika will maybe be able to escalate your concern or one of the other mods... all the best.. H

[Stephen1597]

@Helen9, yes my account that was hosting Airbnb Experiences has been shut down due to a false accusation of fraud.

Which other mods would be able to help me? I never used this community forum before, and would appreciate it so much if you could help me giving their names so that I can tag them in the message. 🙂

[Helen744]

@Stephen1597 @Quincy .. H

[Stephen1597]

Thank you so much @Helen744 !!

[Bhumika]

Hi @Stephen1597 ,

Thank you so much for elaborating your concerns with all details and sharing them with us.

As we Community Managers are not a part of Customer Support, I cannot promise much here as to what support you can get about it. But I will share your feedback with the concerned team. I hope someone may be able to help and reach out to you further.

[Stephen1597]

Thank you @Bhumika 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Stephen1597 I hope you take this in the right way but actually Airbnb is not being inane in wondering what is going on here. A credible scam would be where a host sets up an experience, friends book it with stolen credit cards and the host benefits from being paid for those instances where the credit card owner doesn't spot the fraud until after the payment is made. Without host involvement the scam doesn't work. The alternative view is that someone is just targeting your business to remove you as a competitor.

[Stephen1597]

@Mike-And-Jane0 No offense, but why would I go through all the hassle in trying to escalate this ridiculousness if I know that I was involved in that. I am in no way involved in such things, and I know it is a false accusation. Therefore I am seeking help from the Airbnb team to investigate this thoroughly so they see that their algorithm made a mistake in identifying that fraud payment.

[Stephen1597]

@Quincy or @Bhumika Would you be able to assist me here to escalate this to the Trust team? I have been sending many emails to the Trust team with all evidence to proof that I am innocent.

“We won’t restore your account” is the response I get. They won't even investigate further even though they are falsely accusing a 5-star host for a fraudulent payment, which does not make any sense. The Trust team is treating me like garbage right now, and I would appreciate if you would be able to get me the "Human!" help I need.