Can someone please explain to me how this works and if I'm still vulnerable to this potential scammer.
This morning I received an inquiry for a weeklong stay in my AirBnB space from "Daniel", claiming to be a photographer with the BBC - had a nice,wholesome profile photo, showing himself with a child on his shoulders. This potential guest requested I email them directly, as they are often traveling for business and unable to access AirBnB's website. (My own employer blocks certian sites, so I am sympathetic to people who need to use other forms of contact from time to time).
I was vaguely suspicious of their email, since normally AirBnB masks emails in messages, and this one was clear to see.
(In the past, though, I have found ways of getting around AirBnB's masking of phone numbers, so figured this person has done the same for emails).
At first I copied the email address from the AirBnB email, forwarding it to them and saying my space was available and I'd happily answer questions. The email was returned undeliverable, since the .com portion of the email was apparenly a masked string of characters.
I then manually typed the email address and resent my note (I know, I know! I should have seen the undeliverable mail as a warning sign!)
About 20 minutes later I got an email from AirBnB entitled "AirBnB Trust and Safety", warning me that I had received a nefarious message, that they had deleted the conversation, and that I should change my email and AirBnB passwords if I had communicated with the potential scammer. I did that immediately.
My question, though, is how could this scam have worked? If they only got my name and email address from the note I sent manually, is that enough for them to do any damage? Was it a phishing scam requiring me to click on the "masked" email for there to be a problem?
Am I still vulernable in some way because of this?
