Is this a scam?

[Zack105]

I contacted this person for a room on a different site. I'm looking to rent in london - long term.

We converse via email for a while, and they tell me that they're in spain and would like me to verify myself and verify that I can provide the deposit before they come to the uk to show me the room, and they would like to me to use airbnb to do this. 

That sounds fairly reasonable to me. They then explain that this is just to show that I do actually have the funds, not to actually pay them anything - I'll only pay after I see the place and sign the contract.

And then they ask for my current address, email and copy of my ID VIA EMAIL so they can start the AirBnb procedure

ding ding ding ding

The room already seemed too good to be true, and that just comepletly threw me off.

I would be on board if they wanted me to independently verify my id via Airbnb (which I know you can do), but I'm not ok sending my id, address and full name to someone on the internet. What would they even do with this information? Surely I should be providing this information from my side? After creating an account or whatever.

Is this obvious scam indeed a scam? I'm unsure where else I could post about this.

[Gordon0]

Well-known scam, @Zack105, and you'd be led to a copycat Airbnb site. Avoid.

[Zack105]

I see I see. Thank you ever so much 🙂

[Elena87]

@Zack105 

Would refer you to this thread, in all it's grizzly detail

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Rental-scam-using-Airbnb-How-should-I-go-forward-if-at-all/...

[Zack105]

oh my dear god that's awful to read! Vile.

I normally consider myself pretty savvy with this stuff, but just for a moment, because the room was so nice I considered just sending my stuff to this person. I'm kinda desperate so can fully sympathise with these people that did end up sending money.

Thank you for that thread. Very sobering.

[Sarah977]

@Zack105  The unfortunate people who get sucked into these scams all say the same thing- that the place looked really nice, that they were desperate to find something, and that the price was too good to be true. If something seems too good to be true, it likely is. It's a good thing you had an iffy feeling and asked about it before proceeding.

One of the problems is that people who answer these scam ads haven't bothered to find out how Airbnb works, or they would know immediately when first engaging with these scammers that Airbnb doesn't have agents who meet you with a key and allow you to preview the place, you don't sign a contract when you decide you want to rent the place, there is no special long-term Airbnb dept., that Airbnb hosts don't ask for guests to send them ID- that guest's ID is registered with Airbnb, not the host, (the exception is if you rent a place in a country which requires all guests to register with a govt. office- the hosts will often ask for this info so they can register you before your arrival) and you never send money to a host's bank account, Western Union, or anything else- Airbnb charges the credit card you have on file with them when you book. The host doesn't even get paid anything until after a guest checks in. And Airbnb hosts don't send guests a long email telling you their life story about why they have this apartment for rent.