Card being charged for a reservation I didn't book.

[Aamir3]

Hi,

Today I was checking my credit card statement and saw that my card has been recently charged for a AirBnB trip I didn't book. I could not find a helpline number or email to write to AirBnB support directly.

Can somebody please direct my query to AirBnB Support to look at and contact me immediately? Following are the transaction details, I could see a booking id there to start the investigation.

Amount -1.437,12 EUR

Posting text 

AIRBNB * [Personal information hidden]

Many thanks,

Aamir

[Linzey0]

https://twitter.com/linz_ey/status/1625901530762162177

https://twitter.com/linz_ey/status/1625901272770531332

https://twitter.com/linz_ey/status/1625901234849710081

Help me get airbnb's attention. These fraudulently charges are getting out of hand.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Linzey0 ,

I understand the frustration you are going through. Although I will be raising your concern to the related team, can you please elaborate if this happened after any recent stay at Airbnb? 

Have you previously managed to get a hold of Airbnb Customer Support through any contact channels? 

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Laura5992]

I had a fraudulent charge from Airbnb on 3/11/23 for the amount of $781.16. The reference # next to the charge is ***. I have not booked a trip on Airbnb since June of '22, nor has any of my family. The trip itself does not appear on "My Trips" on my Airbnb account,  and there are no other fraudulent charges on my Visa card, so clearly this is a security issue with Airbnb.  I have reported the charge to Visa, my card is locked and they are sending me a new card. Please look into this on your end, Airbnb! Thank you.

**[Reservation number hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Laura5992 this is a community centre not Airbnb. Anyway your bank will sort it out.

[Laura5992]

Yep, I know that... but Bhukima's responses seemed to indicate that she had some sort of direct line of communication with Airbnb corporate, so I thought I'd respond specifically to her in the event she could relay my issue. The other comments in this community (and others) make very clear that Airbnb is not at all helpful nor seems to care about its security weaknesses and is, therefore, difficult to reach. So, I thought Bhukima could help.

And, yep... my bank is doing its thing as well.

Thanks.

[Linzey0]

I have a charge on my card that is not associated with any stay I booked. The charges aren't associated with any of my stays. I have no idea what the charge is as it's not on my account. My card info was stolen. I can only imagine they got it from airbnb's website bc I recently added it to my account.

I have reached out to the support team through airbnb. However speaking to someone that can actually help doesn't seem to be possible for this situation. 

It seems someone stole my info through airbnb's app. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Linzey0 Dispute this with your bank and get them to change your card ASAP.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Linzey0 ,

Thanks for elaborating on your concern and providing the necessary info.

I have redirected your concern to the related team and look into this.

I hope you get to hear from the Support soon!

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Bhumika]

Hi @Linzey0 ,

I wanted to come back and let you know that the team is actively looking into your case, and they will get back to you soon.

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Kirk142]

This has now happened to me. An errant  AB&B charge for $4761.00!  I immediately contacted AB&B and they said  "we have confirmed that there has been no unauthorized access to your Airbnb account" . When I protested, they were  of no help, they  robo mailed me 3 times that they were working on it. I phoned my credit card company and reported fraudulent activity. AB&B contacted me and said i shouldn't have reported it as fraudulent activity because this will now wind on for several weeks to a month.

I was still confident it could be resolved because  curiously the charge was for a date 8 months off into the future, in 2023! I had never heard of the vendor before. It's not like it's a 2 day booking in the 4 Seasons during the Super Bowl. It's a week long booking for a little a frame cabin in Ohio! I've phoned them  and they haven't returned my call.

When I first phoned my credit card company Citibank, they temporarily cancelled the charge, and issued me a new card , then for a  month they appeared stymied, I didn't hear anything from them until I tried to make a purchase and found the card was at it's limit because the $4760 charge had been added back to my  account with no notice from them.  I phoned them back and then they  seem to act like they were processing this for the first time, and then a week later they send me a new card that I didn't  even request!  So now I'm told by ab&b it's been escalated. Every rep I've talked to, whether it's on ab&b or Citibank sympathizes but what good does that do? 

Can anyone give me advice or suggestions? 

[Aamir3]

Hello Kirk, that's really unfortunate. From my experience, your only saviour is your card company. Perhaps directly reach out to Visa/MasterCard (whichever is the card provider) if your bank isn't helpful. Card providers have the power to squeeze out the money from these fraud establishments. In parallel, please tweet your case to AirBnb's CIO/CSO/CEO on Twitter. Share the tweets here so we can retweet and amplify. It's AirBnB definitely at fault here for failing to secure users data.

[Connie473]

We had three charges against our card  from "Airbnb" (which is now cancelled) for a booking we already paid for in 2023; Airbnb  has been useless and again asked if a family member used the card - how would that be if Airbnb was charging the three amounts on my card which was a new card freshly issued after we had already experienced other fraud on the prior card.  From reading all of this, Airbnb is not secure and you should not book on their sites, or if you have to, never pay with a credit card that has ability to be charged for additional amounts.  Talk to you bank about how to pay in a more secure manner, and put a hold on your card so that the bank has to call or contact you if a charge is over a smaller amount, like $75, and then you are notified and can decline.  We have gone through four credit cards, VISA and AM EX in the last three weeks, with fraud, with Airbnb being the last one.  Be careful, lots of desperate people out there.  $899 seems to be a popular number, charged on both of those cards, but a lot more also.

[Jacqui286]

I just made a booking yesterday on the AirBNB website.  Paid $1375 on their website as a deposit.  Now have discovered it was a duplicate listing.  Contact the other listing on the site and only one of them is the actual listing.  This is all completed on the AirBNB site.  Now their claim it wasn't on their site, but i have all the details on the app as well as on my Airbnb account.  They offered full cover for something like this, and now they as shirking their responsibility saying I need to contact my financial institution.  This is simply not good enough.  AirBNB  site is useless if people are able to hack into it, post false listing and claim peoples money.  I will be contacting a higher authority to obtain my money back, someone needs to be accountable.

[Adam1576]

This just happened to me as well.  Airbnb still has not fixed this.  Someone used my previously cancelled credit card on file but it still went through my bank said because Airbnb works with Visa to get the new credit card numbers and somehow this person was then able to charge it.  Why does Airbnb have access to my new credit card information without my consent??? That should be illegal!!!  

[Leslie753]

@Adam1576 the same thing happened to me this past Saturday. My account was hacked, and has $7,000 in transactions made. Charged my grandmothers card, and the charges went through. (Luckily found by my frauds detection by her credit card company in time) BUT the card that was charged isn’t even active anymore. She cancelled the card months ago, so how were they even able to still charge the card??

unbelievable. 

they charged another card for $4,500 for “extra services” that was stored in my account. It was a friends debit card from an air bnb we shared in 2021 but used my account. Air bnb is being practically useless in helping, so hoping them filing disputes with their banks is enough. I will never use air bnb again.

[Nina1259]

This also happened to me at the weekend. A booking was made for £595 using my credit card, which wasn’t a card I’d used with Airbnb. I reported it to my credit card company who raised a fraud investigation. They had to cancel my card which is a massive nuisance because I’m abroad for a month. When I joined Airbnb they took steps to verify my identity, so how come they let people make bookings using credit cards not registered in their name?  They need to sort out their security!! 

[Sarah977]

@Nina1259  Most businesses allow customers to pay with credit cards that are not in their name. For instance, I have booked airline tickets for my daughter, who does not have a credit card- the passenger's name and ID is hers, the credit card is in my name. You could hand anyone your credit card to make a purchase- the store or company only cares that the card is valid, and not reported stolen. So Airbnb isn't operating any differently than any other business in that regard.

That said, I'm sorry this has happened to you. Your card must have been compromised somewhere. ( FYI, never let an employee of a business, like a waiter, or a hotel receptionist, take your card away to process a transaction- you yourself should always insist on putting your card in the machine. There are also fraudsters who put card readers in ATM machines)

[Martha813]

This just happened to me. What a disgrace from AIRBNB for not doing anything about it!

[Brian2036]

@Martha813 

I don’t know what Airbnb could do about it. The credit card company should cancel the transaction and remove it from your bill or credit a refund if you already paid.

Credit card fraud is a serious global problem and any kind of online transaction is an opportunity for thieves.

It’s unlikely that someone stole your credit card information from Airbnb. If their system has been hacked they would know.

 I hope…

[António136]

I found this site in the net. It could be helpful for people with the same problem:

https://www.airbnbhell.com/contact-airbnb/