People looking for my 'exact address' anyone else have this issue?

[Deborah236]

I didn't want to overreact from the first person asking for my exact address but after about the 5th inquiry in a row, something is not right. The first person to ask explained that she was coming in town for her sisters birth and wanted to make sure it was close to a hospital. So to help her out I told her what my cross streets were. Then the second person asked for the same information but with a different story. Again, I went ahead and gave her my cross streets. Again, a third person is asking me the same thing. Keep in mind none of these people have any reviews and none of them have replied to me and this is all happening this afternoon. In fact I just got two more in the last hour. One on Airbnb and now a brand new one on VRBO. Now I feel weird. Why are so many people asking me for my home address? I start to get suspicious when all of a sudden I got another email in the mixed of all this and this is what she said(and I'm quoting):

"Hi Deborah,

My name is Meredith. I am a worker on Amazon Mechanical Turk. It is a website created by Amazon that allows employers to post jobs for workers to complete and get paid. You can find the website here: (URL HIDDEN) Today I accepted a job from an employer named "(SENSITIVE CONTENTS HIDDEN)API". The job was to find the home address of listings on AirBNB. I assumed the addresses of the homes were posted on the listing and the employer was just too lazy to get it himself. However, after accepting the job, I saw that addresses were not made public. Your AirBNB listing was the listing that came up when I accepted the job. When I saw you did not have the address of your rental on your listing, I figured the employer was a scam. He asked us to use (SENSITIVE CONTENTS HIDDEN) to find the address, which I thought was odd. Here is the job listing I accepted so you can see for yourself. This job was just a practice job to see if I could find the address, so I was not going to be paid anything: (URL HIDDEN) However, this second link shows he is paying $2.50 per address if you do the practice one correctly: (URL HIDDEN) I went ahead and declined the job and told other workers not to do it either. I don't feel comfortable looking up a woman's home address and giving it to someone without her knowledge. Especially when I don't know what it is being used for. I also reported the job and the employer to Amazon. Maybe you can report this info to AirBNB as well. Collecting info that is not posted on the AirBNB listing seems like a security risk and I think AirBNB should know about it. Let me know if you would like any additional info. I would be happy to give it."

Has anyone else dealt with this? I am new to airbnb and VRBO. What is this all about? Should I be concerned?

Deb

[Marit-Anne0 · Accepted solution]

@Deborah236

Definitely very fishy bordering on scary. Flag all those messages to airbnb please. Giving out the exact address before a booking is confirmed IS a security issue.

[Deborah236]

Yes I've been flagging them. It just seems to work and yes scary! Is there anything else I should do? Should I call Airbnb? 

[Ange2]

@Deborah236   Yes, call or use Twitter Airbnb help.  Recently I have been getting weird and trolling "fity questions" inquiries and spam links in messages and even links to other sites where my Airbnb has been listed without my say-so that includes private information about my listing, earnings etc. Maybe there is a wider problem here so yes do contact Airbnb.

[Deborah236]

Yes @Ange2 was thinking about calling them. I didn't want to get alarmed and overreact but after getting the message that they are being hired to hunt for addreses, I'm getting a little scared! I keep getting inquiries for the same th. I started to flag them but it's always a new profile. 

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Cormac0]

@Deborah236

I don't believe in coincidences either well except on the very very rare occasion.

No booking and they want your address! Tread carefully.

Regards

Cormac

The Explorer’s Club Krakow III

The Explorer’s Club Krakow VIII

[Deborah236]

 @Cormac0 thanks, I'm glad I'm not losing my mind and that this is a legitimate concern. 

[Jude7]

@Deborah236 -

Wonder if this is being orchestrated by your city to see if taxes are properly being paid or to see which properties are being rented out on a short term basis?

Jude

[David126]

I can think of several reasons they are haversting addresses, can not think of a single one which would be to your benefit, just have a standard reply saying they have to book first to get your address.

Now unless you are on strict they could of course book, cancel and get a full refund.

[Roswitha36]

This week alone I've had 3 requests to come by and see my property. 2 were from guests who had booked, 1 was from just an inquirer. I really didn't expect that to happen. The inquirer was easy to deter but the other two have the address now, so I'm thinking they may roam around the property and disturb the current guests. It's odd because we have over 30 photos posted.