BE AWARE! SCAMMER ALERT!

[Stefan75]

Airbnb is full of scammers, on this Twitter account you can daily find new scams. The trick is they try to contact thrue there own mail, at some point they ask you to reserve the date thrue Airbnb, when you do this it's rejected. The scammer says there is a error at Airbnb and a employe of Airbnb will take contact with you. You will get a mail from what it looks like Airbnb but it is NOT! Then they will ask you to wire the money, if you do this your money is gone.

I have personaly been scammed and lost €2750,- 

Airbnb does nothing for you because you had contact outside them.

As you can see at the Twitter account Airbnb does nothing about the scammers, it's a paradise for them.

The scammers often place there email adress on the second photo.

Be warned!

[Elena87]

I'm sure regular participants on the Airbnb forum have seen these types of scams where the vendor posts pictures, usually of unfeasibly palacial apartments situated in superlative districts in popular locations ( Amsterdam and New York seem to pop up often)  for attractive prices.

The modus operandi is to post a picture with an email address and some spurious or bogus reason why you should contact the vendor directly and offsite.

It seems to me that airbnb could focus to improve their security filtering and it seems apparent that it takes way too long for Airbnb to react to red flagged and reported properties to act to remove them. There even isn't a reason in the drop down boxes to alert Airbnb to a potential scammer.

However, people should take ultimate responsibility for their own actions. I've every sympathy for your loss of money but I think there are enough general and non-specific warnings around imploring people not to wire money directly to strangers. Especially substancial sums sent to improbable email addresses.

[Stefan75]

I Understand what your saying but the most people don't go searching the help and warning pages before booking a house. Airbnb should take more responsibility taking good security measurements. It isn't that hard to take these measures.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Stefan75

In my experience there is a warning with every booking not to pay outside the airbnb platform.  

[Stefan75]

Tell me where? Never seen it.

[David126]

A Secure Platform

Guests pay through Airbnb when they book a listing. Hosts receive payment through Airbnb 24 hours after guest check-in. With all the transactions taken care of, all you have to do is say “Hello.” Learn more

[Stefan75]

I know all this now but if you're new to Airbnb it's easy to fall in the hands of scammers. This text is from a house currently active on Airbnb: 

For a better price and also to accept your reservation, please contact me to discuss further details <<< martin363@gmx. d e >>> Only this way your booking will be accepted <<< martin363@gmx. d e >>> Thanks.

https://www.airbnb.nl/rooms/16075743?_branch_match_id=329194316959810395&ref_device_id=14c6673201f85...

[David126]

It is not just AirBnB, these appear on other sites.

All the ones I have seen have been fairly obvious, I do not know how they can be prevented, whack a mole.

In these cases where you deal outside the system I do not see how you can blame ABB.

[Clare0]

@Stefan75 Like any other website (Amazon, Ebay, etc.) once you leave the website and communicate and pay privately with someone, you are on your own.  All payment protections are gone. 

I agree with you that Airbnb could do more to prevent these scam listings from appearing on their website and when they do they need a more efficient way to report and remove them.  

But, as with any transaction on the internet, buyers need to do their due diligence and evaluate the track record and reliability of sellers (in this case hosts) and not chase the "too good to be true" shiny object which is the hook that scammers use. 

[Stefan75]

I am always very carefull but the person who scammed us was so very smart I fell for it. He didn't use the more obvious way the most scammers do on Airbnb and we where very unlucky there also was a real error at the Airbnb site so we fell for it.

We received, as it looked like, real mails from Airbnb, we know better now.

You can't let your guard down for one second these days. 

[Clare0]

@Stefan75 Yes, the scammers are very, very sophisticated and they study Airbnb's practices, procedures, and policies probably more thoroughly than the average host.  I've seen scam listings with a chat feature and when I went back and forth to other pages, they even remembered me.  

Have you seen this help article on how to identify real Airbnb emails vs. fake ones?

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/971/how-do-i-know-if-an-email-is-really-from-airbnb

I'm so sorry for your loss! Thank you for warning other users!

[Stefan75]

Yes I have seen everything! I am busy for over a month now looking for every single method to get my money back. My insurance is still looking into it. I also heard from somone the scammers are complete groups of people operating from China. So I don't have much hope of getting my money back.

[Clare0]

@Stefan75 Yep, the Chinese are behind most of the scams on the internet.  It's big business for them as they get millions of $'s scamming people.  They even have set up phony Airbnb websites, like Airbnb.rentals.com  or something similiar with the Airbnb name.  

Nowadays since most business is done through the internet, people have to be extra careful when parting with their money.