I am a superhost and I recently found out that my apartment is being rented out fraudulently, using photos from my Airbnb listing.
My question is: how did they connect my airbnb listing to my full name, address and facebook profile?
The scammers have downloaded photos and text from my airbnb listing, and put a room in my apartment for rent using my name. They have posted the listing on open websites for people who have a room or apartment to rent.
At least two people have sent them money to foreign bank accounts with a similar name: My first name, middle initial and a different last name (which the renters both assumed was a married name.)
I was contacted via Linkedin by one of the people about a month ago who wanted to confirm that I was renting my apartment to them (I was not!) The second person showed up at my house 2 days ago. Both of these people were foreign students who are coming to study in Copenhagen next year.
I have reported the issue to the police, the banks, the websites where the listings were placed, and also airbnb. Airbnb was the only one who said it is 'not their problem' because the fraud took place on other sites. However the fraud started with them. How did these people connect to me? Unless they rented or communicated with me before, they cannot access that information publicly.
