Real link?

Answered!
Sophie0
Level 2
London, England, United Kingdom

Real link?

I received this message today, I wondered what people thought?

 

Should I open the link? 

 

Thanks

 

Hello,
My name is Amelutza , I need your room is possible ?
I have see on airbnb same apartment but is other host , How is it possible ?
Here is other host

[link removed]

I will wait your Reply
Thank You!

1 Best Answer
Deborah0
Level 10
California, United States

If you know anything about hacking, you will realize that this is a hacker website....any website address that has "Airbnb" in it but it is not the real Airbnb website, it  is a hacker website, set up to engage in phishing!  Airbnb website always starts with "https"  --not http -- indicating it is a SECURE website, and starts with www.airbnb.com or www.airbnb.co.uk, www.airbnb.co.fr, etc for different nations .

 

 THis is doubtless a phishing site, set up for the sole purpose of perpetrating crimes -- getting hosts to go to a fake Airbnb page and be prompted to log in, thinking they are on the AIrbnb page, and then enter their account info, which is copied by the phishing site, so they steal your log in info, and then they hack your account and can either use it to steal your money or create additional phishing posts to try to lure other hosts in so they can steal yet more info.  Phishing and hacked accounts are a real problem for Airbnb, so hosts must take care and use common sense.  

 

Report this immediately to AIrbnb. HEre's what I got when I typed in that address and tried to go to that site -- this notification about the danger of this site comes from Google, I believe.    Which indicates that Airbnb may actually already know about this phishing site and have reported it -- but you should report it anyway.  Just click on the flag icon in the upper right corner of the message you got from the guest., to flag it to Airbnb to evaluate.  WHat I don't understand is how these links are coming through the system, because the Airbnb message system is supposed to block links from guests who haven't booked yet, except for those which are really on the Airbnb website.  Screenshot (248).png

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22 Replies 22

One way scammers get emails is by following @airbnbhelp on twitter.  People corresponding are either hosts or guests.  Although Airbnb stresses to all to DM (Direct Message) which is a private conversation, both hosts and guests unwittingly post their email addresses in a public twitter forum and the scammers go to town.  Airbnb tells them to delete tweets with private information, but they just don't get how dangerous it is to have the world have access to their email address. 

Deborah0
Level 10
California, United States

Very good information, @Clare0, thank you for letting us all know about that! I don't use Twitter myself so I would not have known about that.  

Or "Secrets on how to make a huge amount of money as a host!", or the like.  Something that basically sounds unlikely and scammy, but naive hosts may fall for it.  

 

Well, I am one of the naive hosts. This happened to me just yesterday through a LINK posted in the Community.

I got a notification from ABB about a login from a different com[puter in the USA while I am based in Jordan (Middle East).

 

I changed my password immidiately, but after that the hacker signed in again !

 

I checked my account and listings and found:

- in each of my 3 listings a message that if someone wants to book to use another email address;

- the "notify my when a listing has been changed"  or something like that, that box was not ticked anymore, so I would not get any notifications anymore;

- the hacker was creating another (4th) listing in my account for an appartment in New York;

- my account was connected to an apps with name: Lithium Community.  I have no idea what that is.

 

I deleted ALL changes and changed my password again.

I have reported everything to ABB.  They were working on my case and would contact me very soon.

All I have noticed is that my listings can not be found anymore. But NOT ONE WORD I heared so far from ABB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At same moment I posted my story above ABB fixed all my problems and everything is fine now.  
And..... I HAVE LEARNED A GOOD LESSON ! 

Hi @Maryam-Al-Fakheer0! So sorry to hear you've had this experience.  Unfortunately you are not the only one victimized in this manner.  Not only do hosts get their profile hacked, the scammers then go on to post listings scamming guests out of $1,000's by telling them to contact them directly and pay outside Airbnb.  

It's a real problem.  Glad that Airbnb was able to put it all right.  

Thanks @Clare, 

 

This is exacty what happened to me. The hacker was in the process of creating another FAKE listing.  

They also UNcheck the box for notifications, so you would not know if any changes was made.

I changed my password directly 2 times !, but later I found that the password was NOT changed at all.

 

And yes, Airbnb helped me out on this in a great way and everything is fine now.

 

 

This is what happens when your profile gets hacked.  The host in this situation has a real listing, but the hackers took over her profile and created 4 new fake listings (only 3 shown here) and probably more around the world. These were duly reported to Airbnb and removed by them, but I doubt the host in this situation even realized what was going on.  

 

 

Athens Scam Listings.JPG

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out, Amelutza! It's always important to exercise caution when receiving unsolicited messages with links. In this case, it's advisable not to open the provided link. If you have any concerns or questions about your Airbnb reservation or potential guests, it's best to contact Airbnb directly through their official channels to ensure the security of your information.

Take care,
Mushtaq