Credit Card Fraudulently Charged on AirBNB by AirBNB

Thanadon0
Level 2
Thailand

Credit Card Fraudulently Charged on AirBNB by AirBNB

My credit card was fraudulently charged on Airbnb, it was credited back right away the next day. I didn't notice this until my bank statement came in. The problem is that I lost out around $14 on currency conversion as I don't live in the US and my card was charged in dollars. I did not even log into my account for more than 7 months.

 

I contacted AirBnb regarding to the issue, my case manager was Sonyah.

 

I asked them why my card was fraudulently charged and requested the $14 loss I incurred. Sonyah's answer was that, they credit me back the amount that was charged, and they can't tell me anything regarding to why my card was used without approval. She said I have to take up the loss with my bank on my own which is ridiculous. 

 

Sonyah said its under their privacy agreement that they can't tell me anything. They will only release information to law enforcment officers or goverment agency with subpeona only. At first she tried to put the blame that its my friend or family that could have used my card. Then she said that since its credited back, my currency exchange loss may be due to bank charges which I need to take up with my bank.

 

AirBnb and Sonyah pretty much threw their own customer under the bus. They just lost a very valuable customer. I spend at least 30 days in hotels per year. 

 

If anyone has more tips, please do share. For those out there, never save your credit card on Airbnb website or app. I did a quick search on google, this issue happens often.

53 Replies 53

OCBC Bank claims will take 2 weeks for investigation and AirBnB did not help much, instead, they guide me on how to remove my card from AirBnB settings despite I told her the situation I'm in. I was shocked to see this thread, how on earth it uses the same AirBnB account number, same with all the others above. Is this scam done by Airbnb itself??? 

Mike2066
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Hi all, this also happened to me in jan, £700 was taken and refunded 2 months later, no communication, no explanation and no accountability. Luckily I had a large enough credit limit to absorb it without a penalty, but I had to move money around to not incur OD fees on the account that pays my CC. With The number of people this has happened to is anyone up for taking the matter further whilst we have some time to formulate a strategy? 

i think this it wholly unacceptable and tantamount to stealing. They can’t even tell me if it was a security breach or just a systems error. I mean we could perhaps push some social media methods to force them to take action and give a suitable response.


they have claimed that GDPR prevented me form getting any information about what happened, whereas evidently MY GDPR rights/laws have been broken and they need to be accountable for this and i want to try and prevent this happening  again for future customers! If they have been breeched it is likely they are trying to cover it up and if they haven’t then it’s a system screw up and they need to make some reassurances that it will not happen again. 

 
if anyone is interested in joining me then I will look to find a way we can all discuss.

 

I suggest some social media publicising, Perhaps approaching a TV program or two?

but I’m open to suggestions.

 

their response is simply unacceptable!

 

Thanks.

 

mike 

 

Terrible. 

Same here. Two unauthorised Airbnb transactions yesterday on the First Direct VISA card belonging to my wife and me, one transaction for £60.81 the other for £42.10. I don't have an Airbnb account. My wife checked her Airbnb account. No such payments authorised nor showing. Today, the payment for £60.81 was reversed, but not the payment for £42.10. I've emailed First Direct secure y and instructed them to reverse both payments. The next thing to do is to go to Hampshire Constabulary to report Airbnb for fraud.

OK, I've just reported the fraud to Hampshire Constabulary online, by completing a fraud report on https://reporting.actionfraud.police.uk

Silvi2118
Level 1
East Java, Indonesia

Hi, This issue just happened to me. I did not even log in to my account for these 2 months. But I got the detail transactions of Airbnb to my email. I checked my history login was safe, nobody else logged into my account. But how come, I billed some transactions from airbnb to my credit card?

I think that database of Airbnb is not safe, someone hacked the database and used it to fraudulent transactions.

Deirdre128
Level 1
Singapore

Our credit card was fraudulently used to make an Airbnb booking. We reached out to Airbnb  and received the standard " a refund cannot be issued in cases in which we believe a friend or family member who has access to your payment method has used it unintentionally" message from Sangi. No assistance whatsoever to help us retrieve our money or to give us more insight into the booking.

@Deirdre128 You are wasting your time contacting Airbnb (or any company) about fraudulent use of a credit card. The only way to deal with it is via your card issuer.

Victor2998
Level 1
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Hi, I would like to share my credit card "happy end" story in order to appreciate efforts of AirBNB support team.

What happened: found 2x charges of & 0 & $740 on my credit card. It was absolutely clear that scums got my cc details and used it about 16  hrs ago to pay AirBNB booking . 

First action: Contacted bank & blocked card. Requested to cancel the transaction. Bank rejected. As per bank procedure I filled transaction dispute form. Bank promised to settle down the case after the investigation. 

Regardless the negative feedbacks in this thread, I decided to report scums to AirBNB.

Step#2. Reported scums via chat from my profile. Politely explained in writing that reservation #xxxxxxx is fraudlent and requested to cancel it immediatelly. As a proof I attached screenshot from my internet bank. ChatBot suggested to contact support via phone to get immediste support. I called to support & explained the situation. Ticket was created & forwarded to security team.

Outcome: AirBNB support processed full refund in 24 hrs.

 

In total, it is worth to report scums to AirBNB ASAP. They really can help you on the spot. In contrast, bank may take 3 to 6 month to complete investigation.