SECURITY! Fake charges -- this means Hosts are unknowingly taking bookings from criminals!

Sheila22
Level 10
New York, NY

SECURITY! Fake charges -- this means Hosts are unknowingly taking bookings from criminals!

HOSTS, BE ALERT!  Airbnb is totally insecure!  I am a Host and was shocked to find this out!

So, let me start first by saying: I first tried to go through Airbnb to find out more information about this, but have been VERY disappointed in the responses I 've gotten from them, so here I am in the Community to spread the word to other Hosts (who are likely in the dark about this problem) and hopefully we can get Airbnb to fix this problem immediately.  My daughter, a teen, just starting college, has a bank/card charge card -- carrying her not so large hard-earned savings -- does not have an Airbnb account.  I have warned her to not use this card except to withdraw cash, but she has used it (almost not at all) for very few online purchases -- this is how much exposure this account has had out there in the world (not that this information is all that relevant to what I'm about to tell you).

My daughter called me crying because $740  were charged to account for several  Airbnb reservations.

As a mom, I reached out to Airbnb to make sure that when my daughter files complaint with her bank (who have been very helpful so far) that I can be assured Airbnb will credit her for these charges.  Airbnb did promise me that -- so I feel confident that this piece of the issue will be resolved between bank/Airbnb through the bank's fraud department.

As a Host, I am NOT at all happy with the canned responses I received from Airbnb about this issue.  As a Host, if this didn't happen to my daughter, I would never have known this kind of thing can even happen with Airbnb -- yes with retailers -- but that is NOT the same thing at all!  My assumption was that Airbnb knows we Hosts are in the vulnerable position of welcoming strangers into our homes, so Airbnb's security needs to be extra extra extra secure!!  We need to be able to trust that Airbnb has Host's security in mind and is going out of their way to be super secure.  I was trusting that was the case! Yet, when I reached out to Airbnb about this incident, they gave me canned responses with advice on how to file a complaint with the bank telling me how this kind of breach happens all the time to credit cards.  I was floored by this.  I asked them the same questions over and over and received no direct response to the questions I asked.  My questions were:

1) Was the name on the reservation the same name as my daughter's, or was this a different name? I need to know if my daughter's whole identity was stolen, meaning the criminal was able to make an account on the Airbnb website, as my daughter.  This is important to me, as her mother and as an Airbnb Host -- why can't Airbnb tell me the answer to this?  If a criminal was able to provide two gov't issued IDs giving proof of my daughter's identity (which Airbnb requires for an account, right?), this is something I really need to know.  I would need to get law enforcement involved.  Airbnb, please respond to this questions ASAP!

2) Was the name on the account a different name from my daughter's? If this is the case, as a Host, I'm really surprised Airbnb allows that to occur without batting an eye. We, the Hosts, need to know that this blatant lack of security is happening.  So please, Airbnb, just let me know -- is the name on the reservation different from the name on the financial account which was paying for these reservations?

3) What is Airbnb going to prevent this from happening in the future?

***I received several unhelpful, indirect, scripted responses from Airbnb, but no answers to these questions!!  I told them over and over.  I am a Host -- how do I know criminals aren't booking my place?!  My guess, is that the Hosts involved in the bookings related to my daughter's bank theft, still have NO IDEA that criminals booked their place!

***Here's are obvious solutions to this issue -- 1)  Airbnb, DO not allow your system to take bookings that have a different name on bank account/credit card than the name on the reservation  and/or 2) Airbnb, flag bookings where name on bank/credit card account doesn't match name on the reservation -- after flagging, seek more information.  3) Be transparent with Hosts -- if the reservation is flagged for this reason, let Hosts know, so they can decide whether the explanations for two names is valid, whether the new information provides enough proof of identity, and let the Host, in the end, choose to take or not take this reservation.

Currently, when Hosts see the transaction information, Airbnb is not being transparent with the Hosts.  We only see the name on the Guest's Airbnb account.  We do not see the name on the Guest's financial account.  It never crossed my mind that Airbnb would allow someone to book when these two names do not match.  Until now, I would see the name on the transaction and I always assumed that is also the name on the Financial account.  It is bad enough that we do not see the full name (first and last) of the Guest until AFTER we've taken the reservation, BUT when we do see the full name, this 'full name' we see can be totally disconnected from the financial transaction that is taking place to book your home.

Boooooo!  Airbnb!  You are failing Hosts terribly!!

38 Replies 38
Andreas-and-Anna0
Level 10
West Vancouver, Canada

You wasted precious time calling ABB. The bank would take care of it. Daughter needs to deal with the bank. Teach her how to deal with the banks.

The bank did take care of the chargebacks -- that is not the point I am making -- you need to read my original post all the way through.  The other Hosts (victims of these fraudulent transactions) unknowingly have guests staying in their homes, criminals, who used stolen money to make those Airbnb bookings.  That is very disturbing to me.  What is Airbnb doing to fix that problem?  As a Host myself, I think I have a right to ask that question and get some answers.

The only waste of time is that Airbnb is so unresponsive to my questions.

Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

If your account is true, I am very disappointed that Airbnb shared private information (your daughter's account)  with someone else (you).

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Paul154   You should reread Sheila's original post. Her daughter does not have an Airbnb account.

 

@Sheila22   I do agree with you that after explaining to Airbnb that your daughter's credit card was used to make a booking, when she does not, in fact, have an account with them, nor gave it to anyone to use for that purpose, and asking them a simple question as to whether your daughter's name is attached to the booking, they could not have answered that question. It would not have breached anyone's security or privacy, as you weren't asking for the name the booking was under, but just whether it was your daughter's. Yes or no.

 

But this is not an Airbnb security breach. Your daughter's credit card info was not stolen off the Airbnb site. Someone managed to get this info by some other means- it is a matter for the credit card company and the police to deal with.

 

One of my daughters, 41 years old, has never had a credit card in her life. She is an off-grid type, and while she does have a bank account and a debit card, she doesn't even do online banking. If she doesn't have the money to purchase something, she doesn't (which all those folks with tens of thousands of $s in credit card debt might learn from). She lives a debt-free life, and the only time she has ever needed a credit card is to buy the occasional airline ticket. Then she asks me or a friend to please book it on our credit card and she pays us cash. There is nothing even slightly fraudulent or deceptive about her name being on the passenger list for a flight that was booked on a different card name. All businesses operate like this- as long as the card is valid, the purchase or booking is accepted and does not have to be a name match with the purchaser. I don't know why you expect Airbnb to operate any differently.

 

I do think Airbnb needed to be contacted about this, but only to be alerted to it and to know that the credit card company is not going to accept the charge. Because the upshot is that some poor host was going to have some scammer show up at their door claiming he/she has a booking, and the host would have been advised by Airbnb that the credit card charge was denied, so the host would have hosted for free. Let's hope Airbnb HAS cancelled the booking, notified the host, and delisted the account holder who defrauded.

 

I don't know how credit card companies and the police deal with credit card fraud, but I'm sure the police have ways of forcing Airbnb to release the name of the person who stole your daughter's info and booked themselves a trip with it, but who that criminal is, is not your inate right to know. On your end, you just needed to let the credit card co. know that it was a fraudulent charge and to alert Airbnb that a booking was made with a stolen credit card.

 

 

Setting up Airbnb account -- it's been a while since I first set mine up -- I believe you can pay either via credit card or bank transfer -- so you can set up a payment method with Airbnb even if you don't have a credit card, providing your bank account/routing info.  So even your daughter can set up an Airbnb account using her bank account if she wanted to.  I definitely believe that when the name on Airbnb account and name on the financial account (used for payment) do not match, it should certainly be flagged and then further verification should be requested.  If there is a legitimate relationship between the two people (the two different names), then certainly those two people should be able to provide further explanation/documentation verifying that relationship.  Flagging these discrepancies is necessary to protect Hosts from taking fraudulent bookings -- to protect Hosts from shady people, who booked with stolen money, from sleeping in their homes.  Airbnb can and should be more vigilant. 

@Rick140  As I pointed out above, if I book an airline ticket for a friend or relative on my credit card, the airline doesn't require that the names match, nor that further explanation or documentation is submitted. I don't know why you folks expect Airbnb to operate any differently than any other business in this regard.

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Sheila22 Your overall mentality seems to be that Airbnb is responsible for a lot of things and could eliminate you having to take certain precautions yourself, all for a lousy ~3%~ host  fee they are charging you. They are governed by privacy financial laws like everyone else and not allowed to demand  people's criminal records as if they are a police force. 

   If you are expecting all that, perhaps Airbnb is not for you, and I can't think which other booking agency is, which includes those other booking agencies charging the host a lot more than 3%. 

   Risk is a function of one's personal situation and level of fear, and since those two realities are not the same for all people wanting to be Airbnb hosts, no wonder Airbnb is not for everyone.

Manu3900
Level 2
Greater Noida, India

I've turned off instant booking and put a seven day advance notice window for booking just for this reason. Even then, host is still not protected if guest or fraudster claims its an unauthorized charge.