Airbnb Hacked

[Cherie3]

My account was hacked.  AIRBNB WAS HACKED.

I became aware in the moment as I was on my cell at my desk talking on speaker wth my cell beside me.  I saw two Airbnb Alerts come through; one on text message, the other an email alert, both indicating a change in my email.  Clearly, I knew it wasnt me.  I ended my call immediately and attempted to find and open either message.  GONE!! Both messages that clearly came through, and that I later verified were sent by Airbnb.  GONE!! Gone from my inbox, gone from my message history.  If I did not have my eyes on the screen when they were momentarily visible, I would not have had any inkling that my personal data and account info were compromised.  My assumption is that there are many accounts impacted right now without the hosts knowledge as this hack is sophisticated enough to remove from the host any trace of the alert.  I tried to log into my account via my desktop and was locked out.  My email was said to be invalid.  I called Airbnb and was told initially that they could not verify me unless I could tell them the current email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The email that the hack established.  Unbelievable!  I was fortunate to still be logged in on my cellular app and was able to visualize the hack email: [Personal information hidden as per the community guidelines] 

 Only then was Airbnb able to assist.  BAD system.  NOT secure.  Can you imagine that a hacker has free reign in your account and because you are not privy to this new email address that the hack established, you cannot be verified.  What a joke!!  Tell every host you know to make sure they can log in now if they arent already.  We've had mostly positive experiences with Airbnb and hosting, but frankly, Im rattled.  

[Emiel1]

Hello @Cherie3 ,

This is an interesting story you mention here, finding yourself in a rather unique position to see your account hacked in front of you.

[Matthew285]

@Cherie3 this must be very upsetting; I hope you are able to re-secure your account.

Please also check that your personal email account is secure, as sometimes bad people first compromise your email account, and then use that to reset the passwords on many accounts (not just AirBnB).

(Remember: often online services let you reset your password by sending an message to your email inbox. If the person has access to your personal email, then they can reset your passwords on any service where they might know you have an account... which they can sometimes figure out from reading through your email.)

By the way, in addition to saying "My account was hacked" you also say "AIRBNB WAS HACKED".

What indicators did you see that make you believe the entire AirBnB system was hacked?

Was there anything beyond the compromise of your own account?

You say "My assumption is that there are many accounts impacted right now without the hosts knowledge..."

Is that just an assumption (as you state) or have you seen some actual evidence of this?

I hope your mail email account has not been compromised!

And I hope you are able to keep control of all your other accounts!