@Viktorija19 @Sarah977
These communications are from fraudsters attempting to recruit hosts to collude in their money-laundering scams @Viktorija19 - hence the "earning money without hosting is not a myth" line.
Cyber criminals have been rampantly exploiting the weaknesses n Airbnb's safety and security systems for years, and emboldened by their successes (and Airbnb's failure to detect/halt their fraudulent actions) they've more recently graduated from the inconvenience of having to seek out complicit hosts on the dark web, to simply setting up their own Airbnb accounts and approaching hosts directly.
"The Daily Beast found a number of recent posts on several Russian-language crime forums, in which users were looking for people to collaborate with to abuse Airbnb’s service. According to Rick Holland, VP of strategy from cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows, these operations rely on an individual or group using legitimate or stolen Airbnb accounts to request bookings and make payments to their collaborating Airbnb host. The host then sends back a percentage of the profits, despite no one staying in the property.
In essence, it’s a way to extract value out of stolen credit cards. In another case, fraudsters might buy electronic goods such as iPhones with stolen cards to then resell at a profit. This is the same idea of laundering funds, just with Airbnb"
Inside Airbnb's Russian Money Laundering Problem
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-airbnbs-russian-money-laundering-problem
How Criminals use Airbnb and Uber To Launder Money Stolen From Your Credit Card
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/how-criminals-use-airbnb-uber-launder-stolen-credit-card-money.html
