Is my listing being scammed?

[Michele107]

I have only been an Airbnb hosts for a few months. It has been great. Lovely guests, great reviews and now very busy and popular. However, yesterday I was really worried. I had a request, for one of the few days I have left this year. The potential guest said that there were 2 listings with identical photos and description, but with a different host. My pictures are professional Airbnb, verified!

I am concerned that somebody is trying to scam my listing..is this possible? if so travellers will be loosing money, think they have booked a holiday and I will loose bookings. Even worse, could 2 sets of guests turn up at once?

What should I do ?

Michele

[Sandra126]

Hi @Michele107, Could you ask the guest for more detail regarding this listing? There could definitely be a problem here, but you need more detail. Have you trawled through the listings to see what the potential guest saw?

I did just do a quick look but unless they have the same header pic I wouldn't know what to look for. And wow, you are certainly fully booked!

[Michele107]

Thanks Sandra,

I have tried to trawl through, but couldnt find anything untoward. I think that I should actually contact Airbnb though. My friend was recently scammed out of £200. Airbnb paid him back plus £100 for his trouble. This could potentially be a growing problem. I think that I have a duty and responsibility to inform them, even if it turns out to be nothing.

Thank you ever so much for your advice.

Michele

[Andrea9 · Accepted solution]

@Michele107

This is a scam!

@Sandra126  gave you dangerous advice. This is what the scammers want, because when you go to the '2nd listing', there usually is a prompt to enter your login details even though you were already logged in.

If you did that, then your account info is in danger. 

Contact Airbnb immediately, change your Airbnb password, and flag both profile and message as phishing attempts!!

how to contact ABB

[Michele107]

Gosh Andrea, I really appreciate that advice. I will actually phone Airbnb as soon as I get back from voting in the referendum!

Many thanks

Michele

[Andrea9]

You're welcome Michelle, and good luck!

[Michele107]

I contacted Airbnb by phone. They were really helpful. They had already spotted the scam, and had taken action. They escalated the issue and responded to me with exactly the same advice as you...change my password. Well done, thanks for your help

Michele

[Sabbah0]

Hi All,

i have received the following message:

Hi, I am interested to book for 5 nights. This place is amazing but i have a problem, your property is for sale on airbnb alias site. Here you have, please remove the space in the link before "world" for a link working. www.airbnbrooms. world/rooms/415827 Please check and let me know urgently. Thank you,

i opened on my laptop and it came up with dangerous site, i have flagged the message as inappropriate and declined the listing.

Within 15 mins i have had Airbnb send me an email:

Hi Sabbah,

I am reaching out because another Airbnb member either requested to communicate with you via private email or Facebook, or sent a malicious message in which you may have been asked to verify your listing, or copy and paste a URL into a new browser window. We ask that you halt your communication with this individual immediately. We have removed their account so that you will no longer have access to their message thread.

SO IN SHORT IT IS AND DONT CLICK ON THE LINK, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD ASAP

Sabbah 

[Airin0]

Hi, does any here ever receive a message like this ? 

Hello,

I am pleased to have you write me back.
I and my mom both come from Long Island and New Zealand respectively. I have showed her the link to your apartment and she likes it but she has a few questions concerning the booking.

Please login here to view our questions and answer it.
http://testermancommunications.com/wp-content/plugins/revslider/public/assets/fonts/pe-icon-7-stroke...

Thank you.

[Michael6737]

I have been trying to resolve an issue where an adjustment was taken from my latest rental. However, the adjustment was dated back to 2018. I didnt own a property in 2018 not to metion the name of said host was USA. I have reached out multiple times to AirBnB and all I keep getting is that it was from my other property back in 2018. I have expressed multiple times I never owned any other properrties. I started listing my property in October 2021. I just dont understand how they can not get this issue resolved. Unfortunately, I can not continue to host on AirBnB just because I feel they do not have the hosts best interest. A very costly mistake. 😞