Guest scam? Dark web for 'guests'?

[Anna1883]

Hi,

I wonder if any of you had a smilar experience. I just said goodbye to a long term guest and as of today my calendar is free for a few days. I just got a WhatsApp from a girl saying she has a reservation for a name "Shayla". She is adamant she booked my place but hasn't received a confirmation. Needless to say, neither have I.

It's obvious something is fishy here as a similar situation happened to me a few years ago where a girl asked about the address right away because she is nearby and needs it asap. My question is, how do these people know our names and phone numbers? Is there a darkweb for airbnb crooks where they exchange the locations, names and numbers of hosts? She knew my room was free, knew my name and my number.

Anyone? 

[Sarah977]

Is it possible that she got your number from a past guest who stayed with you? Your name, at least your first name, is on your profile, and a guest can easily see if you have unbooked nights just by looking at your listing. So knowing your name and the availability isn't suspicious, but knowing your phone number is.

@Anna1883

[Lorna170]

@Anna1883   Although your phone number may not be visible on the ABB listing until the guest has booked, google yourself or your address.  You will be shocked at how much information about you is out there on other web sites, including your phone number.  So it is no surprise to me at all that they obtained your name and number.

Anyway, the person who called you can book with you via ABB if they are legitimate.  I would ignore them otherwise.

[Helen350]

...except would you WANT to offer a legitimate booking to someone who insists they've booked when they clearly haven't? What other stunts might she pull?

@Anna1883 

[Helen427]

@Anna1883I recently had a request via a new Guest with no reviews to go through WhtasApp and it was picked up by both myself and ABB in the system which is a positive ABB Trust & Security are now been proactive about these issues.

I've had all sorts of weird ongoings with my calendar looking like it was booked after the fact without any requests or actual bookings all year.

Oddly enough a Chinese girl and her friend who were scamming through ABB earlier this year making bookings to use Guest Coupons, who I reported and gave an honest review on, had also been into one of their accounts the day this started happening to me. They know how to trigger Bots.

Have you reported them as Spam?

If not make sure you do.

All the best

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@Anna1883 

There are photos of the building. It is enough to find your adress with google map.

No dark web. Regular web is enough.

It took 12 minutes to a friend of mine to find all the information about a host  who had doubt like you.

She did not want to believe him.
Her professional phone rang. It was my friend host calling her and told her identity, personal adress and the company where she worked.
People give plenty of information on internet.

My friend is not an IT developper and he did it in 12 minutes.
Imagine what an IT developpers can do?
Google and websites are not always your friend.  

[Anna1883]

Well, there are no photos of the building really and all my social media accounts are set as private. As a high school teacher I need to make sure I am not "googleable".

Strange, strange, strange... 

[Elisabeth40]

you probably hosted someone who gave your phone number to someone else. I would never respond to anyone who doesn't texts you through the app. 

[Jon2951]

We're new to ABB - 3 months or so - and we've seen all manner of madness.
Funny thing is I can't even figure out what they're trying to 'get'. A free night? Maybe walk out with a nice TV and a few valuables? It's just stupid. You're not getting within 500ft of the house without being on camera. Seems like a huge risk to gain so little.

Two nights ago a guy pulls up to our house at 10PM insisting he had a booking. (Not through ABB) He's sticking his phone in my face to show me my listing on the site and immediately flipping to his Wells Fargo app to show me the payment going through - so I already know it's a scam. Who pulls up to a place with a legit booking and is expecting to have to prove it?

Long and short, he booked the place back in December and immediately cancelled it. Then wants to know what we can do to resolve the situation. LOL! "Nothing. Sir! I can't help you. This problem is between you and the service you used."

But dark web? Nah. That's far too much effort for far too little IMHO.
All that said, I'd love to hear from some folks who have had similar experiences to those voice herein who might be able to shed some light on what all these scammers are after. It really doesn't make sense to me.

[Sarah977]

Well, some of these scammers are trying to get the host to book outside the platform so they can save on Airbnb service fees.

Then there's a couple of well-known scams, one of which is the scammer sends you an Inquiry message saying they are travelling to your town on business and their company is paying for accommodation,  but they have a relative in town they can stay with. So they propose that they make a booking, but not actually stay. The company will pay for the booking, and the guest and host will split the payment.

They ask you to call them on Whatsapp (they write out the number so the algorithm doesn't block it) to discuss the details. The they say that as soon as you see the booking confirmed, you just send them half the money back. But after that happens, the payment for the booking fails, because it's a stolen credit card scam.

What amazes me is that people would put so much effort into trying to scam people, which likely isn't successful the majority of the time (most hosts are way smarter than falling for something like that), when they could just get a real job.

@Jon2951

[Elisabeth40]

I personally love insta booking option and strict cancelation policy. I strict keep to my rules. speaking out of my personal experiences, usually the guests place a booking and thats it. I am not a fan of complicated questions back and forth. If a guests doesn't places a booking, instead starts asking me questions and needs infos which is already in the listing description, I revise to my listing description and the house rules. Never communicate with a guest or a potential guests outside of airbnb app, never submit to extend their booking outside of airbnb, never accept cash. I figured, people who ask too many questions, mostly end up not booking and wasting time, sometimes hours of your time. Keep it simple and transparent. I do not find it effective to ask questions, people will lie if needed and you will never know. For that case you have your house rules. People who book fast and efficient are all 99,9% amazing guests. Mostly the main focus is the event why someone is traveling and not your room or you as a host. All my guests have mostly amazing plans and I am pretty happy about it. Keep it simple.