Fraudulent Airbnb Payments!

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We have just found out our payments have been paid to a fraudulently set up bank account in Spain.
We are based in UK and have 13 apts listed with them but without warning they started paying an IBAN account in Spain IN Euros. So far we have calculated more than £50,000 has gone to this UNKNOWN account. No response from Airbnb fir 3 days Uk fraud police are investigating. All multi property hosts please check who’s account your money is going into.

Posted in Airbnb Host Stories and tagged , , , .

19 Comments

  1. I have paid 3000€ to the Airbnb bank account in Poland then I didn’t got any call or any confirmation back to me , I don’t got any call from the host , what I should do please explain to me ,

  2. Hello, I have received an email from a host that seems it is in Portugal and wants to rent her apartment in Barcelona. She told me that the rental should go through Airbnb and she had send my data (copy of passport) to you. On second day I have received an email with some data…looking like a invoice where I was asked to pay in advance and follow some steps. Seems like this is a big scam and I want to report it. Also my passport copy is in their hands so I am not sure that they might do with it. The invoice was sent from Airbnb Invoice . The host that contacted me has the following email address: Eva Marin Jodar , and the folllowing contact was indicated to me by her as being an airbnb agent: Numero de whatssap de agente airbnb +34 602 486 480(Victor).

    Please take into consideration this claim and do everything you can to stop this.

    Fortunately I havent send any money, unfortunate they have my passport copy.

    I would also like to file for a compliant at a police station in Barcelona in order to avoid that my data will be used..is there an online system where I can do that?

  3. I am another stupid victim of fraud through Airbnb. A German owner sent me the invoice and payment details to transfer €2000 to Bankia in Valencia(Spain). The owner disappeared… I rang to Airbnb Customer Service and they are not responsible about those frauds.

  4. I was recently paid 780$ (before banking / PayPal etc. fees – which are quite minimal)for a booking that was valued at 800€. 780$ is equivalent to 688€ so Air BnB effectively short-changed me 112 Euros!

    I have phoned their help number repeatedly.. it says “we look forward to talking to you” etc and asks you to punch in your registered phone number with Air, which I did, then the caller is unceremoniously disconnected (how nice!)

    No callbacks – no result… what to do now?

  5. I have been also victim to fraud on AIRBNB site. The presumed landlord told me he wanted to talk to me before accepting the rent. As a new Airbnb member I thought that this request was quite understandable. I spoke to him and he told me he would confirm the booking. I then got a very official looking booking confirmation by mail with the request to pay to a bank account in the UK (all in the name of Airbnb with an agent named Florin Chivu). I transferred the amount. Two days later I got a mail from Airbnb telling me that I had been contacted by a fraudster, that they had removed his identity and were sorry for an inconvenience. Since then they refuse to take any responsibilty, even if I have already seen at least two fake appartments posted with teh same trick (e-mail adress on the last picture). They also refuse to collaborate in the criminal investigation that i launched (with little hope) by refusing to reveal the (fake) identity of the “host”. I am shocked to now find out now via this site, that fraud is apparently very frequent and that the company is not doing anything to improve the security / client protection or to reimburse customers. As a German citizen I am told that I cannot take Airbnb to court apparently . But isn’t there any complaint that had been logded against AIRBNB in the US?

    • I wish I had seen this website before I made my Airbnb “booking”.
      Just like Katja, I also was scammed in a way that’s similar to hers.
      I transferred 970Euros 2 days ago to an account called “Airbnb Inc” in Poland.
      I am also a first time Airbnb user and wasn’t familiar with the procedures.

      I am based in Germany and I just came back from my bank and obviously, they cannot get my money back. I expected that but I was more worried about my bank account being compromised. I was assured that my bank account is safe. I hope that’s 100% true.

      Anyway, back to the scam. I’ve searched for about a week on Airbnb’s website and contacted a couple of places. Even though the calendar showed the dates were available, I’d get a message back later that the apartment not available. That’s what got me in trouble.

      Since Airbnb’s calendar is not up to date, when I found this new apartment, the listing had a note from the owner saying “Please email me for the most current availability”. Because of the poor calendar updates by Airbnb, I thought that contacting the owner for the latest availablility wasn’t strange.

      It was through that contact with the “owner” that the scam proceeded.
      He told me the apartment was indeed available and to start the booking process, I need to send him some basic information like name, address, phone number.

      About 15-20mins later, I received an “official” email from Airbnb with my confirmation number, the exact address of the apartment and payment information. To complete the booking, I needed to do a bank transfer.

      Bank transfer was done and only a few hours ago, I received an email from Airbnb saying that they suspected another Airbnb member requested to communicate with me via email. But this is already too late. I did email their Trust & Safety Center but haven’t heard back yet.

      I know the money’s gone. I wish Airbnb was more prompt with their fraudulent warning emails. Also, they need to keep their calendar availability updated so that new users would not think they need to contact the owners directly for the latest info.

      After thinking long and hard about what happened, it’s good that I wasn’t in Amsterdam and finding this out. Also, I’m glad I did not meet the “owner” to get the keys and I could have been robbed, my car stolen or worse, killed. So, the lesson for me now is to never transfer money online and always get a hotel because of personal safety. Airbnb’s slow customer service and the lack of guarantee of renter’s safety should be a warning to everyone who’s thinking of staying at a stranger’s apartment.

  7. I found a way to get the money back from AirBnb, i was victim of fraud too, please contact me at ajaquez203&#64gmail.com forward the conversations you received from the scammer i will learn you how to get the ip headers so you can prove to AirBnb and other impt details. the insurance must pay you back.

    • Hello ,

      I made a payment to airbnb account at Barclays LONDON 2 days ago .
      I was booking an apartment for my parents in paris for my wedding ! I paid 3559 Euros based on a PDF invoice.

      The owner of the apartment guided me through the website because I couldn’t pay through credit card !!! I got an error message while paying .
      It was a very professional job. They suggested paypal or bank transfer . I preferred bank transfer since it is more secure. 2 days later I get a message from airbnb safety and trust that I was victim of a fraudulent transaction and they apologize for the inconvenience ?!!! This is just unacceptable ! Someone is responsible … Or airbnb is involved in this !!!

      That was my wedding gift !!!

      • Hello Anonymous,

        Sorry for your wedding. I have the same problem. I have paid for the same apartment in same period.
        Please contact me to make togheder a complaint at paris to postal police.

        here is my email: manuelanils28 (at) gmail.com

  9. We’ve just had the very same experience (though for a smaller amount) and the response from Air BnB was ‘we’d be happy to hear how you got on when you’ve sorted this out’. The default bank account was changed in January without any notification to us (as a security measure most websites send you a verification mail to ask if you’ve authorised changes to your password or account, but alas not Air BnB) and though we’ve finally been given the account number and IBAN, we had to go to police to investigate who’s account it is. Our chances of recovering the money is probably pretty slim. Air BnB doesn’t even have a contact number in Europe for situations like this. Very poor and infuriating customer service.

    • I’m in the same situation ! I transferred 2000 € to a bank in Poland. The name account was airbnb !!

      My story is very simple. It was my first experience with this site. I tried to book a house in South of France but the owner after 2 days told me via airbnb site that it was not available. Regarding this first trial, airbnb proposed to me some other houses at a very good price. One of these was exactly what I was looking for so I sent a message to the owner via airbnb site and the owner replied that I had to contact his wife at xxxx@airbnbbooking.com. I did it and started to exchange with his “virtual” wife. We reached an agreement and I received from airbnb a process to book the house. Same logo, no doubt for me. But it was a fake !

      An now, I sent all evidences (screen scans) to airbnb to be reimbursed but they don’t do anything !! Evey internet can be hacked but the issue there is that airbnb doesn’t take up its responsabilities ! They have insurance to cover these kind of damages. So why they don’t do anything ?

      I think that we have to make buzz on Tweeter, FB to show that this company stands shoulder to shoulder with fraudsters. Shareholders will like that and the market too !

      • Isabelle, I can help you. Just send me an email at nealsissons[at]hotmail.com with all the conversations + the fake invoice from supposedly AIRBNB. I have helped other persons in similar cases. We will discuss more after I receive the email from you.

        • Hello I saw that you helped people having same problem

          I paid 3559 euros through a bank transfer to airbnb ltd account in Barclays UK 2 days ago . They sent me an email to notify me that I was victim of a fraudulent transaction .

          Can you really help in this ? And how ?

      • Hello,

        Isabelle, I can help you. Just send me an email at manuelanils28[at]gmail.com with all the conversations + the fake invoice from supposedly AIRBNB. I have helped other persons in similar cases. We will discuss more after I receive the email from you

        thanks

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