Airbnb Scam by Scammer Posing as Airbnb Support

[Scott53]

Airbnb hosts, beware. I received a call from Airbnb. I called the number back, and it was an Airbnb number: 415-800-5959. The scammers said they were updating my account with additional services. Unknowingly, they had hacked my Airbnb account. When they called me, they sent me a code to my cell phone and asked me to tell them the code. I didn't realize they were hacking my account. They used the code to get into my account. Once they were in my account, they changed my payment method to a Payoneer Bank debit card and stole the money from my account. Here's what's odd. They had perfect timing. Usually, the payment is transferred directly to my PayPal account automatically. How did they know to call me precisely before the Airbnb payment would be made? It almost seems like it was perpetrated by an Airbnb employee who had inside access. If someone from Airbnb support asks you to read the code sent from Airbnb, DON'T GIVE IT TO THEM. Give them fake numbers to see what they do. An Airbnb support person will not get annoyed. If they ask you more than once for another code, ask them why they are trying to scam you. Ask them if they need the code to hack your account. Tell them you are going to report them. They will probably hang up. The best way to confirm is to have them send you a message on Airbnb that verifies their name. I hope this helps other Airbnb hosts from being victimized.  #Payoneer #PayoneerBank #PayoneerDebitCard

[Wally11]

Airbnb really should add this to their text message: "Airbnb will NEVER call or text you for this code. DON'T share it." 

**[Phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Mohamed1399]

they just replied we will get back to you 🙂

[Mohamed1399]

in my first experiment at air bnb i got a problem that the refunded amount not appear in my account at all, they did not solve it since 8 hours almost , is it normal for such famous site?

[Jacob310]

This just happened to me as well. Same number, +1 (415) 800-5959. They called last week and said they were implementing new security measures where I could access guest's emails as well as their phone numbers in the near future, but they needed the texted security code. They backlogged payouts for a week. They called yesterday and said there was a glitch in the payout system and they were fixing it but they needed me to give them the texted codes again... I was stupid and did and logged in and saw they had removed 3 of my 6 payout accounts, as well as all my routing rules, and added a "Fast Pay" Visa Debit Card ending in 9941, to "SANDRA MUHIA." I also got an email saying "Payoneer debit" had also been added to the payout methods... I couldn't remove the payout method... I was still kind of trusting them at this point, but then I noticed the minimum payout amount for my three remaining linked accounts were set to $50,000. I was gonna be late for an appointment if I didn't leave the house, so I was struggling to comprehend it all at the time. Then 15 minutes later, the week long backlog of payouts happened to the new default SANDRA MUHIA, Fast Pay Visa Debit card, over $4,700.

I've since contacted AirBnB Support at +1 (844) 234-2500 and after two days, got an email from some "Joseph" saying, thanks for changing your password (i've changed it 4 times in the past two days) and your account is secured from unauthorized access now, and we are working to reverse the wrongful payouts, but it may take 7-10 business days.

But then I log back in to add the three delete payout accounts and see what appears to be my PayPal payout method added back to my account... but I didn't add it, and i can't remove it... and i've gotten two phishing emails that look like they're from PayPal in the past 48 hours from random @gmail.com accounts.

How can an insider AirBnB support tech do this with only the texted confirmation codes? Do they have my entire bank account numbers now or just the last 4 digits of each? How far does this breach of security go? Who can I really trust within AirBnB now?

I haven't confirmed that my money has been rescued yet. Very disturbing.

[Nicole2705]

Did you even get reimbursed by Airbnb? I'm currently in the same situation and out about $4,500.... When I called Airbnb support, they told me someone from a different department would be getting in touch with me. This was a couple hours ago so unsure how long that will take. Did you have to go in manually and remove the $50,000 minimum that the scammer set? I'm wondering if I should go in manually and start deleting the scammers info or if Airbnb support will need that info to recover what was lost. Of course I have since changed my password. Ugh, what a headache.

[Josh343]

I’m glad that I found this thread. This just happened to me as well. I received calls from both the 415 number and Airbnb support’s 844 number. My first call was from a foreign woman from support’s actual number but the call dropped. When I called back, I spoke to a gentleman that had no record of someone else trying to call me and he opened a case then messaged me about it through the app.

Today, I received another call from a foreign woman again. She was hard to understand and gave me a story about Airbnb receiving notifications from “other host sites” about guest using drugs and weapons on their properties. When I questioned which host sites she couldn’t answer me. She tried sending me a verification code as well to “update safety features for my upcoming guests” but I didn’t give it to her. When I voiced concerns about her trying to scam me she hung up. Again, this came from the actual 844 support number. 

I’ve sent emails to Brian Chesky at brian.chesky@airbnb.com and Head of Customer Experience, Catherine Powell, at catherine.powell@airbnb.com but Catherine’s email bounced back. I will continue to look forward other emails to forward my info to because I believe an internal investigation needs to happen. If anyone else has experienced this recently I’d love to hear about it.

[Joelle43]

Hello @Josh343 

Wow, thanks for letting us know that this type of thing is going on.  I'm not surprised that your email to Catherine Powell bounced back as she left a while ago now and hasn't been replaced to my knowledge.

I'm tagging some community managers to see if they can forward this information to whatever department deals with this type of fraudulent behaviour  @Bhumika @Quincy.  Scary😱

Happy 2025🎉
Joëlle 

[Nicole2705]

Consider me the latest victim. Same thing everyone else said in this thread. The number that called me read as Airbnb on my caller ID. Like most Airbnb support calls, they were difficult to understand but wanted me to verify my identity via an airbnb code which came through their text line. I now understand they were changing my payment method. They added a payout through Payoneer and debit payment to someone names Jean. I called Airbnb Host support and I'm currently waiting for them to get in touch with me. I'm hopeful Airbnb will stop payment and reimburse me the $4,500 I'm currently out.

[Patricia4929]

Thanks for posting, they are still at it - the exact same thing happened to me earlier this month, but I was able to divert the deposit by deleting the unauthorized device and prepaid debit card updates made to my account (device was located in Pakistan). I do feel like there is a bad employee that may be allowing our accounts to be hacked. What I don't understand is why Airbnb has not shut this scammer down by now!!!