Are Scammers Inquiring About Long Term Rentals?

[John1574]

I have received some inquiries about long term rentals from parties that have a minimal AirBnB profile with no activity.

My instinct tells me that all is not kosher with these inquiries.

Does anyone have any experience with long term rental inquiries? 

For instance, can you ask for a deposit to secure the booking if the rental dates are many days into the future and to remove that block of time would be risky if there were a cancellation?

Is there a link that someone could send to info that covers this topic?  It is eaiser to pose a question than to search the archieves.

[Rachel2018]

This is horrendous. I've emailed the guest from China for further info but to no avail. They've booked 2 months...for one person and apparently I'm not allowed to know anything. I'm very worried. I've tried to get in touch with this company. They will be losing money. Where I live long term rents are massive. It's hardly worth my time doing short term.

[Felicia200]

Wondering how did the stay turn out

[Sarah4801]

I have received five long-term stay requests in the past month and these are the first I've ever received.

They are all from names like Yuxuan or Xuan who have just joined Airbnb and if I try to ask what their business is they either don't reply or have been rude. My policy is strict so it's mostly non-refundable and we're talking requests of up to $40,000. How I wish they could be real!

Our town is very in the middle of nowhere and only has one stoplight so it is not a place that you just happen upon. I reported the 4th one to Airbnb just yesterday and explained that I'm not sure how they think they could scam me aside from money laundering or trying to hack my banking information, but that it makes me more hesitant to trust any booking request now. Airbnb said his identity was verified and to try to have more of a conversation with them to get to know them before booking, however, it is still way too suspicious considering all the facts. 

I asked my friend who is the only other host in our town and she said she has not received these requests so I warned her that they may be coming. 

I'd love to find out what scam they think they can pull through Airbnb if anyone has any thoughts/experiences. 

[Mark3249]

I just had a similar inquiry with a similar name - unusual longer term inquiry (20 days) telling me they were too busy to communicate through the platform  and wanting to communicate through whatsapp. They never asked one question about the property like a normal person would - I declined the request and reported their profile. Not sure of their plan but it was definitely fishy to say the least.

[Richard2049]

Same thing has happened to me twice in the last couple of months.

Inquiry from Zero reviews, Minimal profile account for multi-month stays. The first one got threatening with me so I contacted Airbnb and they immediately cancelled the account. The scammer was hinting that we should communicate through WhatsApp (which was a red flag) and then wanting to pay me outside of the Airbnb.

Maybe trying to get banking info? Or strip the house of copper...or resell it with fake documents? I can't figure out what the scam is...but it's definitely a scam.