SCAM ALERT! Received a phone call from 415-800-5959, claiming to be an "Airbnb" representative. They said that they were performing courtesy calls as many of their hosts reported issues with payouts being On Hold. And that Airbnb records indicated that I may have Payouts On Hold, and if I could verify. I had over $4,000USD payouts On hold. The "Airbnb" representative then said that there was an issue in the Airbnb system, and that they could help me, and all we had to do is run through some diagnostic tests to fix the issue, which would then release the payouts On Hold. They meticulously directed me to my Payouts section of my profile. I indicated to the "representative" that I already had payout methods saved. The "representative" replied adding a new payout method was a diagnostics test, and we would be adding an Airbnb-assigned payout method for said testing. The "representative" then asked me to select the "Fast Pay," which I quickly pointed out has a 1.5% charge fee. The "representative" said the fee would not apply as this was an Airbnb account for diagnostics testing only. I proceeded all the way up to entering the credit card number that the "Airbnb" representative was going to give me, when I pulled the breaks hard! I questioned the "Airbnb" representative repeatedly that this doesn't make sense. How do I know this is an actual Airbnb representative? They replied that I could ask them whatever questions I wanted to verify, and that I could even look up the phone number from which they called, 415-800-5959. Ironically, this phone number was saved in my phone's contacts as an Airbnb phone number. The representative was not pushy, rather extremely reassuring, calm and collected with every concern I presented about the call actually being from Airbnb. I finally told the representative that I did NOT feel comfortable proceeding further and that I would call Airbnb directly about the payouts On Hold. I am glad I did hang up with the FAKE-Airbnb representative, as I called Airbnb and the actual Airbnb Representative to whom I spoke verified it was a scam call. The REAL Airbnb representative took care of the issue extremely fast (no Airbnb system issue, no diagnostic testing). The REAL Airbnb representative even sent me a message through my Airbnb App. Do NOT trust a phone call from "Airbnb," always call Airbnb directly. Always ask the representative to verify their identity by sending you a message through the Airbnb App.
