An important message from Airbnb’s Trust & Safety team freaks you out

[Can20]

I received an email "We’re reaching out because you were recently in contact with an account that was removed for violating the Airbnb Terms of Service." and It freaks me out because it does not provide information on which account that is. 

It would give  insight if you Airbnb provided the account too so we could also see the pattern and clues to look for suspicious accounts in the future.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Can20... so, that's it? They are just "reaching out?" What does it mean? Do you have to do something? Did they canceled any of your bookings? Whose account was it? Yours or your guest's?

[Can20]

it's a guest account that contacted me apparently. rest is all vague. thats why it's scary.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Can20

The best would be to check your bank account to see if all your past bookings were paid. If they were then it is about some future booking which is hopefully cancelled by Aribnb. But they could at least say so in this email.

[Can20]

complete email.

Hi Can,

We’re reaching out because you were recently in contact with an account that was removed for violating the Airbnb Terms of Service.

Airbnb will never ask you to verify a listing or pay for anything outside of our site, through email, or through a third-party booker. If you sent money outside of Airbnb, you may have paid for a fraudulent reservation. Let us know what happened, and we’ll recommend next steps.

If someone asked you to communicate directly by email or through Facebook, or copy and paste a URL (http://www...) into a new browser window, or otherwise pay or communicate outside of the Airbnb website or app, we ask that you stop communication with them immediately.

If you did share personal information, like a password, please update your password immediately. If you use that same password for any other accounts (like your email), we recommend changing your password there too.

Visit our Help Centre for more information about recognizing scamsand keeping your account secure. You can always report a profile or listing directly through the Airbnb website or app.

Thanks,
The Airbnb Trust & Safety team

[Elena87]

@Can20

I get this on occasion too.

It's usually someone asking for external contact outside the site, offering third party services or involved in some scam.  A clue is it's almost always an enquiry.

Recently I had a couple of inquires of - ''I'm an employee coming to your city with a big allowance for accomodation and if I book your place , we can come to a deal as I already am staying with a friend'' - which I guess is they book with a wooky card but ask you to give them a wad of money and disappear before the wooky card is found out. Of course, I reported this malarky and I get the safety and trust email later.

Anyway I don't think you can see the violated account as it will have already been ejected, removed and erased, but if you keep e-mail notifications and compare this to your airbnb inbox you can possibly see there if you spot the difference.

Have a look if you can Can ( sorry, couldn't resist)

[Can20]

thx. I think it was someone who wanted to rent for a full year on behalf of his son or something.

[Can20]

Just got called from airbnb. They provided me with the date of messaging and identity of the account. I am kind of relieved.

[Robert-And-Nancy0]

 @Can20 and @Branka-and-Silvia0

We got the same email on 10/22.  We only have 1 property and I went back to look and we had not been contacted by anyone.  This is what we received

  Very Strange

We’re reaching out because you were recently in contact with an account that was removed for violating the Airbnb Terms of Service.

Airbnb will never ask you to verify a listing or pay for anything outside of our site, through email, or through a third-party booker. If you sent money outside of Airbnb, you may have paid for a fraudulent reservation. Let us know what happened, and we’ll recommend next steps.

If someone asked you to communicate directly by email or through Facebook, or copy and paste a URL (http://www...) into a new browser window, or otherwise pay or communicate outside of the Airbnb website or app, we ask that you stop communication with them immediately.

If you did share personal information, like a password, please update your password immediately. If you use that same password for any other accounts (like your email), we recommend changing your password there too.

Visit our Help Center for more information about recognizing scams and keeping your account secure. You can always report a profile or listing directly through the Airbnb website or app.

Thanks,
The Airbnb Trust & Safety team

[Robert-And-Nancy0]

@Can20

Was it someone inquirying ?  The thing that is strange for us is that we have not had any inquiry or requests so we are not sure what to make of it.

[Can20]

yes it was an inquiry contact which I refused.

[Can20]

I contacted Airbnb through this page and was called and informed as requested. 

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/contact_us

It appears I panicked for no reason.