Fraudulent Activity on Account, Airbnb Keeps me Waiting

Posted on January 2, 2017

I have a UK Airbnb guest account and someone hacked my account, changed my email address and changed the telephone number to my account. No verification is required for someone to do this. No confirmation email stating “click here to confirm changes,” or anything like that. They then used the card details stored to make a transaction of £372.00. They were obviously not required to enter my card’s security number either. I spoke to the customer service advisor who was nice enough, but asked me to put the information in an email to pass on to the security team. Considering this is quite serious fraudulent activity and I can no longer access my account (because my email and telephone have been changed) I would have expected a response by now to reassure me that my account is safe. There has been nothing. No email contact. I have no clue whether my account is safe and Airbnb makes it very difficult to contact them by phone. This is quite worrying. I have been waiting in a queue to speak to an advisor now for 17 minutes so far. Fortunately, my credit card company responded in a much quicker and more efficient manner and they have cancelled the transaction. I no longer consider Airbnb a secure website and wouldn’t recommend it to others.

Unauthorized Transaction: Airbnb Security Breach?

Posted on December 31, 2016

I discovered a few months ago that my credit card had been charged more that 500 CHF from Airbnb. As I didn’t make any reservation at this time (I hadn’t used Airbnb’s services for months), it occurred to me that this was an unauthorized transaction. A few days after my account had been credited, Airbnb refunded the same credit card the same amount plus 6 CHF from fees that I had to pay to my bank for a transaction in another currency. Airbnb refuses to explain what this transaction was for (as I didn’t do it) and also refuses to reimburse the fees. I suspect there has been a security breach at Airbnb they don’t want to talk about. One employee replied to me:

“Additionally, we’re unable to release any information regarding the reservation or the user accounts involved without a formal request from a government agency or law enforcement, such as a subpoena. Should a government agency or law enforcement contact us regarding this issue, Airbnb will fully cooperate with such officials.”

It is not ok that customers have to pay for Airbnb’s security issues without any explanation.

Airbnb Refuses to Pay, Still Wants me to Host

Posted on December 21, 2016

I am new to vacation rentals. I signed up for Airbnb and VRBO in October but then had to suspend bookings as we were completing renovations; I needed time to get my affairs in order with them. When I signed up for VRBO I was instantly helped and hooked up. Ever since then my problems were resolved immediately when I called. When I tried to sign up for Airbnb I first realized that my personal travel account had been hacked. It took three weeks of horrible calls and emails to get it fixed. Once it was resolved, I built my host site and begin taking bookings. The response from travelers was very quick and efficient. After about four weeks of taking bookings I realized that I had over $3000 on my payout screen so I begin setting up a payout method. That’s when it really begin to hit the skids. When I first reported my issue, they said it would take a couple days and they would resolve it. That was three weeks ago. After eight phone calls and emails, two computers, four browsers, 50+ attempts to add a payment method, and three different payout methods attempted, there has been no resolution and they are now up to $5700 in payouts. I am proactively telling my guests that we might have to cancel because I feel like it will be at a liability to me if I proceed with their bookings. It really has been a horrible experience.

Fraudulent Reservation from China to Colorado

Posted on December 4, 2016

I was hit with a fraudulent reservation. In other words someone clearly hacked my account, and made a reservation with my name and credit card information. All the emails were in Chinese. I live in Virginia. The reservation was for Colorado. I immediately canceled the reservation which had a no refund policy… there’s a shocker. I was able to contact Airbnb on chat. They indicated they had the money in their account and that it would not be released until they investigated. It has been over a week. I’ve had one other chat and one email requesting information. I’ve provided all the information required. There has been no response in five days, none. My bank is involved as well, bending over backwards to help. Airbnb is not responding in any way. My email contact has dried up, and phone contact is sparse. Someone has answered, and then I’m put on hold for over an hour. Never again. I’m done with Airbnb.

Account Hacked, Payment Withheld by Airbnb

Posted on December 4, 2016

My account was hacked sometime before October 17th. I realized something was wrong one week later, because I could not receive the emails my future host was sending me, and I wrote Airbnb asking for help. There was no reply. On November 6th I realised, entering my account via Facebook, the system didn’t recognise my email, my account had been hacked, and my email address had been substituted with another. I was not able to change it back again, because I was asked for a password that I didn’t have, as it had been changed as well by the hackers. From that moment on I wrote six emails to safety@airbnb.com and never received a reply. I kept calling the assistance number in Rome and every time I was kindly told that they would take care of the problem.

On November 23rd, as no one had helped me yet, I tried something different: I cancelled my account. I could do it with no password, just a click. Then I called the number again in Rome, fearing that I would not be paid the following month, for the guest I am currently hosting, and again urging them to find a resolution to my case. I received two different replies: according to the first person I talked to, I wouldn’t receive any payment, because my account had been cancelled; it didn’t matter if my guest paid and or if I was out there without an account. Airbnb had my IBAN. That made me furious. The second person I spoke to told me to keep quiet, because I would receive my payment on time, even without an account. Well, I waited until today, because my payment was due yesterday. In the meantime I wrote two more emails to safety@airbnb.com, telling that I had cancelled my account, yet I was expecting a payment. There was no reply. Today I have called again and have been told that the payment has been blocked by them and there seems to be no way out other than to keep waiting for Airbnb to solve the problem. I have a long-term guest, who will stay here until June for 600 euro a month; she can’t cancel, because she would have penalties that we were not able to measure. So for the moment she is paying Airbnb for a month’s rent and they are not forwarding the payment to me. I am really angry and don’t know what to do…

Account Hacked from Asia, Customer Service Does Nothing

Posted on October 23, 2016

I got a few emails written in Chinese and thought it was junk so I deleted them. On October 15th, I got an email saying it was time to check in for my reservations. Immediate red flag. I logged into my Airbnb account and sure enough I had reservations I did not make. It looked to me as though someone actually checked in on October 15th. One reservation was in progress; I clicked cancel as quickly as I could. There was still a receipt listed but under a card I did not own. In fact, there were several cards in my payment method folder that i did not recognize. This made me think whoever it was possibly opened credit cards in my name. Thankfully I have not seen anything unusual on my charges or credit score.

While I was in the process of changing my password for Airbnb and google (I signed in with my Google account) someone had made two more reservations. These were for Japan and possibly China. I was freaking out so I went ahead and took extra precautionary steps: I cancelled all my cards and had my credit card company and bank send me new ones with new numbers. I also changed my passwords to everything. When I spoke to Airbnb about this, they opened a ticket and placed my information on high priority. I called back several times and still did not speak to or get a call from anyone working on this account takeover case. The customer service line claimed they can only put in my complaint and someone from another fraud department will call me back. It has been seven days and I’m starting to believe there is no other department. I cannot just delete my Airbnb account and be done with it because I have an upcoming nine-night vacation in two weeks for which my condos are already paid through Airbnb. I think after this trip I will delete my account and forget I discovered Airbnb. I always booked my vacations through Airbnb and now I have no faith in their customer service. After I took matters into my own hands I haven’t seen any activity on my Airbnb account but I’m very cautious now.

Fake Listing on my Airbnb Account

Posted on August 10, 2016

Two days ago, I received a text notification from a woman named Carmen through Airbnb as a guest attempting to book. Since I am a guest user with no listings, it obviously concerned me so I logged into my account. Unbelievably, someone listed a property in China on my account, and someone did book the listing (Carmen) but then cancelled. It appears that the $80 paid was refunded so I wonder if this Carmen person was involved in the scam or just an unsuspecting customer. I cannot see any way to contact Airbnb directly to remove this listing (I delisted it and changed my password but if they got in once there is nothing stopping them from doing it again). I was able to change the descriptions but again – if they can get in they can change this back and continue to fool potential Airbnb guests. Any advice would be appreciated since I cannot seem to reach anyone at Airbnb to report this.

Advice for when your account is hacked

Posted on December 19, 2013

I am yet another host whose AirBnB account was hacked and whose payout was sent to an unknown bank account. My advice to other victims: call every single day until the situation is resolved. Do not rely on email. I did both. No one ever responded to an email and, every time I called, there was something else holding up the investigation process. Here’s the long version:

12/12-called and reported the problem

12/14-called for an update and was told that I had done everything I needed to do and the case was being marked urgent

12/16-called and was told I accidentally hadn’t been sent the email outlining the steps I need to take to start the investigation process (including changing my AirBnB password–this is important for later). Also told to upload a picture of a government-issued ID on my profile. She was going to mark my case as urgent (again, I guess).

12/17- called to make sure I had done everything correctly the day before, and to say that there wasn’t a place to upload my ID, so I had emailed it. Told that everything was done correctly, and the emailed ID was okay.

12/18-called and was told the emailed ID wasn’t okay. They changed my account so I could upload my ID.

12/19-wrote a long email detailing all the calls and emails (I had sent several–no response). Called and asked the representative to read the email and decide what to do next. He told me I needed to change my password. Told him I had, but did it again anyway. Apparently he couldn’t see the change on his end, and this was also holding up the process. As I was on hold I saw that they deleted the false bank account (I had left it on my profile so they could see it), and had paid me the stolen money. I received an email apologizing for the hack, but also saying that it was probably my fault. Apparently I had received a message with a link in it on November 27 and, if I had clicked it, this is how the hackers got into my account. 1) AirBnB hid the link they are referring to so I couldn’t click on it even if I wanted to and 2) I NEVER click on unsolicited links. Ever.

If I hadn’t called daily, I never would have received the email of next steps, found out that there was a problem with my account and uploading the ID, and that they couldn’t see that I had changed my password as per their request. AirBnB would have legitimately thought that I just wasn’t taking the appropriate action.

Call every day. Call every day. CALL EVERY DAY!