Fraud

[Christopher663]

Has anyone else had their AirBnB account compromised ("hacked") recently (April 8th, 2019)? Mine was and I'm having to go through closing my credit card account and deal with the fraud department to have the charges made to my account removed.

I'm not 100% sure exactly as AirBnB are keeping very "quiet" about the details but it appears that someone set up a fake "host" property (now deleted by AirBNB). Used my account to book a stay the next day for a week, plus paid additional funds for misc. "other" items, did this twice and the payment was made using my credit card information retained by AirBnB. I thought initially that someone had just used my account to book a legitimate host property. When I called AirBnB, I asked the staff member with whom I spoke to contact the Police and have them investigate by going to the address in question. The staff member assured me that someone would phone me and apprise me of the situation within 30 minutes. That was three days ago. I have contacted AirBnB several times but they stated that they couldn't connect me with the correct department (which handles fraud). To be honest, AirBnB have been far less interested in this than I would have hoped.

If anyone else has experienced a similar compromise of their account please let me know as I am wondering how secure AirBnb is with our information.

Thanks,

Chris

[Elena87]

@Christopher663 

Unless it is an inside job, typically if you use a password for your airbnb login that is identical to a password you use on other sites, you can leave yourself vunerable to having your airbnb account compromised.

Once a criminal has a password you use plus your email address, they can run it through software to see what other sites can be entered.

You should check for email breaches on sites such as https://haveibeenpwned.com/

If a criminal enters your airbnb login, what they are interested in is turning your credit card access into cash ; if you are a host - they can attempt to divert valid payments to their account without the genuine host noticing.

If you use airbnb for travelling, they will likely try to book a fake account - one set up by themselves to divert funds to themselves - and make bookings, typically highish value and short notice - rinse and repeat if no-one distrupts them. 

It's difficult to ascertain how the breach occured - if you examine your security info on your airbnb account you will see a log of where and when your account was used surreptitiously.

[Christopher663]

Thank you Elena. That’s exactly what happened. (Fake host, rental short notice). I was quick to react (same day) but funds gone from my cc account. CC company say they will take care of the fraudulrnt charges. I’m a bit disapointed thst AirBnB isn’t more involved. I’m guessing that it is happening more than they want to admit. AirBnB is an excellent service and I don’t want to see it (and the community) taken advantage of.

[Vittoria-L0]

Chris, 

i has the same experience, last week I realized that for 2 months the payments of multiple rental properties I own total income loss $12,000 that were sent to a foreign bank account unknown to me.  I spoke to Airbnb made a claim . I was being promised as well a phone call that never came and instead I received  a lame email that showed little interest in the matter by the trust dept. that they would start an investigation. I was hopeful to received my money back and after 1 week I was informed that airbnb  will not take any action to protect me. And that was it. I plan to go public to make hosts aware of these type of scams and to be clear about the false promises that Airbnb advertise by offering every host a 1M insurance ! 

This is outrageous and I plan on making them responsible for their lack of securities and lack of assistance to their own very community Members. 

Truth must come out and justice must be seeked! 

Sincerely laura