airbnb fake account Archives - Airbnb Hell

Guests Showed Up At My Door… I’m not an Airbnb Host

Meredith — Wed, 08 May 2019 16:52:03 +0000

On Saturday, May 4th, two women with suitcases knocked at my door, saying they were Airbnb guests. I have never been a host on Airbnb. I never would. I said they must be confused about which apartment they rented. They pulled out their phone and showed me photos of my building, of the inside of the apartments here, and a photo of my front door. I told them I’m so sorry but I do not rent this apartment and sent them on their way.

Alarmed, I called Airbnb immediately. I was told this was an urgent matter and I would hear back as soon as possible. On Monday, still having heard nothing, I called again. I was told that I would hear back within 48 hours, that the case manager assigned to my case is only available via email. I asked if the post of my apartment had been taken down. He said he couldn’t tell me.

It’s now Wednesday. I called again. I just spent 34 minutes on the phone. I was now told that the case was originally sent to the safety division, when it should have gone to legal, but now it’s in legal and they should be emailing me. There was no one for me to talk to. Is the post of my apartment still up?

As of now, I do not know if the post has been taken down. The fact that there’s no number for me to call or I can’t be transferred to someone to discuss this matter is beyond alarming to me. How do they verify the legitimacy of a host? I have no idea but something here clearly slipped through the cracks. I am shocked that a company who invites strangers into other strangers homes seems unfazed when a stranger shows up at an uninvited doorstep.

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Keep a Close Eye on your Notification Settings

David Hornsey — Sun, 27 May 2018 17:39:04 +0000

I cannot stress this enough: if you see your Airbnb notification settings change, then change your password. I spotted that my notifications had been switched off a few times and put it down to Airbnb playing up as I know that are phasing out emails and text messages. Yesterday by pure luck I went into the app and saw a message I had sent to another host saying that we would ‘be arriving tomorrow’. It was a 16-day trip to France costing £1117 that I hadn’t booked. The payment was at ‘pre-approved’ status in my PayPal.

I immediately called my bank (Barclays) and they were superb, immediately giving me direct phone numbers for Airbnb and PayPal. PayPal also dealt with the issue brilliantly, immediately freezing my account (which was up and running again within five minutes of calling them to let them know it was all sorted). For Airbnb – not so professional – it seemed to be out of their hands; everything I said was noted but it didn’t seem they could do much.

The account for our ‘host’ was obviously a fake one; I daren’t look to see if it’s still there. I have no idea how anyone got into my account but having seen other stories on here along the same lines I think something needs to be done at their end. Anyway, I was lucky. I noticed it just in time. I think some of you have lost money in this way. Watch those notification settings.

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No Way to Contact Airbnb if Account Hacked

Gale — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 14:50:35 +0000

I have given up trying to contact Airbnb. After my credit card showed usage in London at a host site, I attempted to log onto my Airbnb account. I found someone else’s picture and information on my account. I was only able to see this by backtracking through previous bookings. I contacted my credit card card company and had to get a new card. I was never successful in reaching Airbnb. It took a while just to find a number to contact them and then I was on hold for over thirty minutes. When the representative answered I didn’t get a dozen words out before we were disconnected. I tried a couple more times but never got a response. I found another booking made in France by this same hacker. I sent a message to the host but because I wasn’t able to log onto my account, I do not know if they ever responded. It has been eight or nine months since this happened. I tried today to get into my account but because all the information has been changed, I cannot even change the account information back. I won’t be using Airbnb ever again.

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