Guest Fraud

[Helmut75]

We received that "Hello! I am Alexander. I'm going to have a business trip to Austria and intended to book your apartment that you have listed on Airbnb. There is one thing I'd like to talk over with you. What I am thinking about is to stay at my friend's house once I'm there instead of checking into your apartment. The purpose of booking your apartment is simple. Book your apartment, never move in and just share the rental fee. You can just have some money for doing nothing. If you like my plan as much as I do, please get back to me as soon as you can. You can contact me in wathsap. This is my numbra *sensitive information hidden* . Looking forward to hearing back soon!"

I've reported and I've declined it but still not clear at what they were aiming for. any previous experience?

[Linda108]

Pretty creative 😄  How about this scenerio:  Looking for a refund probably with some type of bogus payment card.  That of course means they will find a way to get the refund, with a new card perhaps, then you will get nothing.  Or, you will succumb to curiosity, what's app the number and invite a virus/hack into your phone.

[Kath9]

@Helmut75 @Linda108 looks like this one is doing the rounds. See this recent post from a few days ago: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Beware-the-quot-Let-s-split-the-payment-quot-scam/td-p/1...

I suspect they will get you to deposit half the money into their bank account, then cancel and receive a full refund. Even more likely is that they will try to do the money exchange outside of the platform in which they send the money for the booking to a PayPal account (for which you receive a legitimate receipt) but it has a hold on it until you deposit 50% into their account, at which point the PayPal money disappears. This is a well-known scam on online secondhand selling platforms.

I think someone should call their bluff and say yes under the condition that they book through Airbnb and don't receive their 50% refund until the  booking is complete. That will scare them off in a hurry.

[Sarah977]

@Helmut75  If you get any more of these and they come as Inquiries, don't decline them, because declines count against you in your acceptance rate. Just report them and ignore them.