Hacking my Iphone --Appears to be

[David606]

I am a fairly new host July 2016.Anybody else have this happen to them?

I had an interesting thing happen today. I got a message on my Iphone from Chris inquiring about would we allow 5 adults and 4 children, on our Cottage with max 8 people? This in of itself was not a problem. He asked several other questions,including could we come tonight Friday, arrive about 9:30 for the 2 day weekend, and that his wife was at work and would book in 15 minutes. This was all on my iphone about 5:30. While I was waiting, I decided to get on to my new computer with a big screen.  Much easier to use with a keyboard. when I tried to see the messages from Chris, they were not on the airbnb website. I did some trouble shooting to see if I was doing something wrong. Nothing worked I could not get Chris's messages on the airbnb website. I was so concerned I called airbnb to see if their website had burped. I was told they did not have an explanation as to what was happening. The technician said he was going to make a report and hand it over to their Tech people. He must have suspected foul play but did not tell me that. About an hour later I got a phone call from Chris??? Strange??  How is this possible? He did confess he got it from my wifes facebook account. Long story short, he was wondering if he could pay me directly, since airbnb would not accept his payment. I told him I would not participate in anything like that.   He wanted me to Call airbnb and have them call him directly to straighten things out. After I hung up I started looking at the Iphone messages again. Not being that familiar with the Iphone I was messing around with the messages and inadvertantly slid the message to the left on the I phone, which archived the message (I thought). When I went to the archive there were no messages from Chris anywhere. They had totally dissappeared.  That explained why they were not on the computer airbnb website. I had really screwed up in deleting those messages, because when I called airbnb back, she said screen print those messages to me I want to see them. I had to tell her they were inadvertantly deleted. It is still confusing to me that the Iphone app I was using was the airbnb app. Some one who knows I phones could tell me if I could somehow find the message program he used, because I've checked all the message system I know and can't find them.

[Danny9]

Nope, fortunately, nothing of the kind has happened to me, so far. 

Several potential guests try to circumvent Airbnb every year. They would mostly want to save on Airbnb guest fees. Strange enough, they have no problem using Airbnb site and its communication system to get themselves accommodation of their choice. I cannot think of a bigger red flag. Hence, I always 'talk them out' of booking with me. 

Airbnb hosts usually do not have the infrastructure to cope with possibly very problematic guests and the conssequences of their behavior. Many of us choose to be risk averse for a host of practical reasons. 

Better safe than sorry!

Danny

Expert support for your listings in Palma de Mallorca!

[David606]

Thanks Danny, I appreciate the good information.

David

[Jude7]

My question is, @David606, how did they get your phone number? Phone numbers are only given to a guest after an actual reservation is made. 

Jude

[David606]

Jude,

Yes,  that is the question. Strange things here.

When he called,I ask and he said, from my wife's Facebook account. Can that be? I don't know

 The other question is how did he hack the airbnb app on my i phone. that is a mystery!

Up date:  today, 2 days later, another message appeared on the lock screen (assuming it came from the airbnb app) saying "your approval has expired, please message him". when I signed into the i phone, and the airbnb app, no message was found. Just disappeared.

Thank you for the inquiry.