Payment Method Hacked and my Payments Diverted out of the Country

Robin107
Level 7
Pensacola, FL

Payment Method Hacked and my Payments Diverted out of the Country

1-Who else has this happened to?

2-Has the issue been resolved with help from Airbnb

3-Were you reimbursed for the lost funds?

 

On June 1st, 2017, I logged in to my Airbnb account like I do daily but only go into the actual account and payout section once a month so I can look at my total payouts and pay my monthly taxes.
 
After clicking on my list of payouts, I first notice that my payout dollars are in "Euro dollars"  and then I look further down and see that my last 2 guest payments say:
Transfer to IBAN*****#### (EUR)  Note, I am located in the United States and my payments have always gone directly to my US bank.
 
Someone had hacked into my Airbnb account and changed my payouts to go to an international bank account. (IBAN)  There were no email warnings from Airbnb notifying us of a bank account change so we had no idea that this was happening.
 
I immediately called Airbnb and was iconnected to a department for "Superhosts" which means you get a rep fast on the phone.  The man took my info and said it had to go to a specialized team that handles this kind of problem.  I told him the entire month of May payments were diverted and asked will Airbnb reimburse this.  He could not answer but assured me someone will be contacting me. He sounded like he has never heard of this happening but as I discovered, it is happening right now to many people!
 
The next day I still did not see any emails from Airbnb so I called again.  They say the "Team" emailed me several times.  There were NO emails at all from Airbnb.   The rep again told me, "my case is being handled" and I will be contacted.  They would not put me through to a supervisor or the "special team"  
 
 On my own without their advice, I went into my account and changed my email address in case the hackers blocked all emails to my original address, got rid of their International payment method, and changed my password.
 
I then researched on the internet and found several people are now or previously experienced the same issue with their funds diverted and did not get any response from Airbnb except that "We're sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Your case manager will follow up as soon as possible or is being handled. Thank you."      Same message from them over and over!
 
One person suggested I contact them through Twitter which I did and did get a response right away which was this:   "we've noted your concerns and updated your case. Your case manager has also reached out to assist you better on the issue via email. Could you check? Let's work together to resolving this issue"
 
I responded with "NO case manager has reached out to me. I have not received any emails from Airbnb. **** I will need to be CALLED by phone as I am not getting any emails from Airbnb. my number is xxxxxxxxx I would like a call today!!! Thanks"
 
On 6-3-17  written as a twitter message I was given the phone number 855-424-7262 by the twitter agent to call the "Special Team".  I dialed it right away and pressed #1 for people with an existing support case.    The recorded message said "We have nothing to report and your case manager will reach out to you"  
 
It is now 6-9-17 and I still have no idea if I will ever see my payments from May which was $1342.00.  I have also NOT received one email back from Airbnb at the email address
my original email address or the one I changed it to after I was hacked   I have found other people having the same problem on the internet also have not had any luck getting help or getting contacted from Airbnb to my knowledge.  Looking for others and to find out if their issues have been resolved.
 
 
To Summarize: 
 
*Airbnb hosting accounts are being hacked.
 
*Payment methods are being changed and diverted to International bank accounts.
 
*The hackers have found a way to also block the host from getting any messages form Airbnb or anything that would alert the host to this happening.
 
*There has been no help from Airbnb is getting this resolved.
8 Replies 8
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

I do not know how your account was accessed but I have seen a lot of phiising attacks reported where they are harvesting log on details.

 

I have my bank account set up to notify me of all new deposits so I get the email from ABB saying I am being paid and a day or so later another one from my bak saying the money has arrived. Not totall perfect but I would notice if I was not getting confirmation pretty quickly.

 

I do not know what happens behind the scenes at AirBnB, the impression you get is that they are seriously understaffed.

David

Thanks for your reply.  Yes,  phishing,  I imagine thats how this happened but I would like some assurance form Airbnb as to what is going to happen.  I lost my whole income for the month of May and it seems Airbnb doesnt care.  I am looking for others who are in the same situation through this forum.  I did find others outside the forum with this same problem and we are working together to try to get this resolved.

 

Hosts need to be looking at their payout method page daily to make sure nothing has been changed.  I never though to look at it more than the once a month!

Quincy
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Robin107,

 

I'm sorry to hear about this.

 

I'm sure that the Airbnb team is investigating this for you as we speak. It usually takes a short amount of time for them to do this and will get back in touch with you.

 

I'd recommend waiting a little bit longer before contacting them again. If you still haven't heard anything after a couple of days, try contacting them again. Here's a useful guide on how to do it. 

 

Please keep me posted.

 

- Quincy

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Please follow the Community Guidelines // Volg de communityrichtlijnen

Jazz3
Level 1
Georgetown, TX

I am facing the same issue too !!!!!!!!

Well they did get it resolved and refunded my funds.  It did take about 3 weeks which was very frustrating!

I do see that this is a big problem Airbnb has and it has happened to all kinds of people everywhere.  Hang in there!!

@Jazz3 If you use the exact same password each and everytime for all your different accounts and a bad guy or gal somehow gets hold of your email and your commonly used password - ( sometimes through a breach of data but sometimes through other means or phising) they will run this information combo through a special programme that will try to access other applications.

 

They might find they can access your airbnb account, and that will give them jazz hands because they can now switch off push notifications (if you had them set up in the first place) and adjust bank details to divert payments at the time of their choosing without you even knowing it at first. They may even try to launder stolen card data this way too.

 

If airbnb don't have a breach of data, what can/will they do about this? They might be able to help but I wouldn't always count on it.

 

My advice to my hosting colleagues is to at least check weekly in the settings to check the log-on history and see nothing is untoward.

Change your password to something unique for signing in on airbnb- if you always use the same password, I know it's a pain in the bottle and glass but prevention is better than cure.

Colleen89
Level 1
Warrnambool, Australia

Yes, my account was hacked too just today. Thing is, I'm super security conscious & don't use the same password twice. Have no idea how they've got it.

Anita250
Level 2
Haumoana, New Zealand

This has just now happened to me. My payments have been diverted to Hong Kong. They have found a way to divert notifications. I saw a brief flash of a notification that my payment method had been changed and if it wasn’t me I should contact Airbnb. After the brief flash the notification was nowhere to be found. Apparently Airbnb is not being helpful. Any recommendations to fix this myself?