Host Account hacked - Payout account changed fraudulently

Julie742
Level 2
Terrigal, Australia

Host Account hacked - Payout account changed fraudulently

I am hoping to hear from other hosts who may have had experienced hacking on their account. Unbeknowest to myself, some time in December somehow my payour bank account details were deleted and a new overseas bank account added. Over $6,000 dollars has gone missing!!! I have contacted airbnb and told my case is being referred to a specialist area fro them to investigate. I have changed my password and checked my notifications are listed to go to my proper email/mobile. I received NO notifications in December of any changes to my account!! To say this situation is alarming is an understatement. I have no way of knowing is my account is safe nor when someone will contact me from this "special" team. How am I supposed to make mtge repayments?? Feeling very angry and betrayed!!! Any advice/suggestions welcomed. Thanks

55 Replies 55

Jen, did you ever get this resolved on airbnb?

Alan1045
Level 1
London, GB

Did you ever get this resolved? I seem to have had exactly the same issue. So far, Airbnb won’t even tell me where they sent the money. 

Now resolved

Paul6331
Level 1
Las Vegas, NV

Its still happening. It just happened yesterday but the funds ate already gone to the paypal account the hacker used.  There is an easy fix: If you want to update the payout account you must verify via cellphone like you do for other account access areas. Problem then solved. But why not do this the first time it happened two years ago?

Eduardo1221
Level 2
San José, Costa Rica

Yes its still happening,  I received this message today: 


"       Hel­lo, I w­o­u­l­d be in­te­r­es­t­ed in you­r pr­oper­ty to spen­d­ the ­C­hri­st­m­as wit­h my fam­ily (my wife an­d 2 chi­ldr­en). I ­saw t­hat y­ou hav­e 2 prope­rt­ies that would interest me more.
I­s th­i­s yo­u­r pr­op­e­r­ty ? : http:/­abn­.­co­-­ho­st­-­li­st­in­g­-­5­5­9­6­2­.­cx­sx­

S­hou­ld I r­es­erv­e ­i­t­?      "

And it is a clear case of a phishing scam. (I changed the link so that nobody enters the data). But the link is a copy of the aibnb login and then you log in, they ask for a code that comes to you by email from airbnb. With which they manage to make the changes I think.

Anna9692
Level 2
New York, NY

Hi, i just realized i was hacked back in september!  But the hackers had been in and out of my account switching between my bank account and their paypal account. So while i was not receiving the entire amount, i was receiving some payout. However in December i rec'd none of my payments and then investigated. Noticed a fake paypal account that was linked as default

Has anyone who has been hacked eventually rec'd their money back from airbnb?

@Anna9692  If you want someone to get a notification that you've asked a question, just use the @ symbol and type their name and number after it.  Otherwise they won't have any idea you're speaking to them.

 

Alternatively, you can start a new post in "Hosting" or "Host Circle" or "Help" and see if you can get some help or community advice on this.

@Ann72  thank you for the tip! Can you let me know if your issue was resolved by airbnb? Did you get funds back?

Yuriy21
Level 2
Tallahassee, FL

This is 4th time in last 2 months that my Airbnb account is getting hacked. Everytime, it is the same scheme:
1. Hacker is logging into my account, changes the language of my account to japanese/chinese/indian/etc
2. Hacker adds his payout info to some alternate PayPal account, which shows "pending".
3. I get a notification in foreign language that "I" added a new payment method. Today this notification came in Japanese.
3. As a response, I notify Airbnb team and you tell me: "No problem, just follow this sequence to secure your account" and website takes me to change my password and logout any unauthorized login data.

It is apparent now that Airbnb is unable to run a secure operations, since their server is regularly is being hacked and my passwords are being revealed to everyone on the internet.
I will call BS on any suggestions that I "phished" into revealing my password or my passwords are too weak. I'm a cyber defense tech and I know what I'm doing when it come to web protection.

If you value your business, please secure your servers or I will switch over to VRBO!

Jon13
Level 2
Idaho, United States

I'm having this SAME problem and Airbnb keeps telling me it's a problem on my side, but I've changed my password to something incredibly complicated, haven't left a password trail and somehow my bank account information keeps getting changed to a European bank.  Airbnb keeps saying it's my problem, but they need to alert me if my bank account information is changed.  I am NOT being sent an email when someone else changes my bank account in Airbnb, however.  WTF? 

Maurizio431
Level 2
Florence, Italy

I too was the victim of this type of hacking. It seems that the vulnerability was my email account which had a few customized filters in place to automatically junk Airbnb related emails, then with access to my account accounts they quickly changed my PIN and security answers in the 2FA. I missed an email that said there was a unauthorized access from New Jersey, but disregarded it because i frequently travel and also use a VPN for added security.

They then requested Payoneer debit cards and i was technically locked out of changing or viewing my payout preferences. I have been hosting for years and i guess i let my guard down and was not vigilant, always checking on my payout preferences and the hackers got away with thousands of dollars of bookings.

I contacted Airbnb and they quickly noticed the issue and got the account back to normal and they were quick to unblock and normalize the account. But my PIN and Security answers in the 2FA are still not my own.  I changed my email account password and my Airbnb password, but i still feel the account is not safe because i don’t have 2FA in place due to the hacked PIN and Security questions which i cannot edit without knowing the current PIN and Security Questions. I've asked for help so many times, and there has been no solution. I don’t want to delete my account because we have many years of positive reviews.

 

This is still a ongoing issue and is under review now by Trust. I don't know if there is some recourse or a way to make a claim on those lost funds and feel very exposed seeing that the 2FA hack has not been remedied. i will try and keep you up to date on any resolutions.

 

But the lesson is to always be checking the sender on all Airbnb related emails before clicking anything.

Check your email preferences for any incoming email filters for anything suspicious which could junk or divert your incoming Airbnb emails. 

Check and confirm your payout preferences regularly to ensure their safety. There could be a way to set up notifications with your bank to alert you when deposits are made.

Use strong passwords and change them in the event you notice anything suspicious.

 

And certainly don't use the same password for your email and Airbnb account. I would suggest using 2FA as well but in my case it was not successful in preventing fraud.

It really feels like a betrayal when your personal details like the first school you attended is not the correct answer and your livelihood is so easily diverted or compromised. I hope i can report a positive outcome from this situation, but it looks so far like a very costly lesson in account security.

@Jon13 
@Anna9692 
@Yuriy21 
@Julie742 
@Julia888