Introduction + advice request

[Michał71]

Hi guys! My name is Michał. I live in Poland. Last year I bought 2 houses near Corinth and while one is rented on long term basis, the other one remains empty. So I decided to take a chance on short term rental. Today I received a strange message from a girl, who insisted on showing her a house "life". She even send me her mobile hidden in the body pf a message so algorytm do not catch this. Any similar experiences? Should I worry and avoid such methods?

[Joelle43]

Hello @Michał71 

I'm afraid to say that this is all too common and these scammers target new hosts in particular and yes you do not want anything to do with this person!

There are many stories like these and at the moment requests for videos are common especially coming from China 

You will have received this request through an enquiry so your only job is to answer within the 24 hour window and you can use the refuse/deny button and indicate to Airbnb that this person is asking you to go outside of the platform.  You can also flag this person in the message stream where they sent you their coded telephone number by using either the three dots or a flag.

All the best
Joëlle

[Michał71]

Dear Joelle,

Thank you for swift response.

I did flag this person while responding. I only wonder what would be the worse outcome to me if I keep playing the game.

Have a lovely day!

M.

[Joelle43]

You like to play dangerously I see @Michał71 😂

Good on you for reporting the guest though😊

[Michał71]

No personal data was exchanged, no CC number whatsoever. Seriously: what do they gain from this? Sure I was excited to see pre booking for 30 days stay but it was too good to be true so I stayed cool.

[Joelle43]

@Michał71 Well with a video they can use that to create a fake listing and the second advantage is that they might persuade you to go direct avoiding the Airbnb fees and who knows what else??  But yes during these quieter months, it does get your heart going for a few minutes before you  realise that it's a scam and disappointing I agree😊