Seems Like My Account was Hacked for Nearly $1000

Posted on August 1, 2018

Out of the blue I received a credit card charge from Airbnb for nearly $1000. No email notification, no “you’re going to India”, nothing mentioning any booking. I contacted Airbnb immediately, had the usual 30-minute wait, explained the situation and was told not to cancel the booking or I would receive nothing, since my login ID had been changed I was probably the victim of a hacking account takeover, and to wait until Airbnb got back to me which could be up to several days. No help or information was provided; I was just told to shut up and wait.

I had never had any problem with my credit card before, just with Airbnb. A few days later I was notified that I would get an immediate refund but they still haven’t issued one. I tried to find out how my account was hacked or anything about what happened and was told that they don’t release any account information (including my own account) without a court order. When I persisted, they hung up on me and told me not to contact them again as the matter was closed.

I tried to contact the CEO but never received a response. I could never contact the supposed host as only a message saying his status is “being reviewed” came up when I tried to. Airbnb has been rude, not at all helpful, condescending, and doesn’t seem to care at all about their customers and problems that occur due to their failures. I still haven’t received a credit and they advised me not to contest the charge with my credit card company.

Keep a Close Eye on your Notification Settings

Posted on May 27, 2018

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.

Long and Costly Contact on Airbnb’s Phone Number

Posted on April 25, 2018

I found on the weekend that I couldn’t actually get into my Airbnb account as it had been hacked. After the most bizarre few days, there was nobody from Airbnb dealing with it as of this morning. They do not have a customer service outfit that can cope with demand. The only way a guest can complain is via a phone number that I eventually found (for UK users): 0203 318 1111. This number is not available on their website. I found it by Googling and finding angry people who posted it on their own Community Forum.

Any guests with account issues must stay on the phone line until the problem is resolved, as they promise to phone you back and then don’t. I have phoned them again and again. The telephone line wouldn’t so expensive for a decently timed response but depending on how long you spend getting a human being… my average suggests at the very least five minutes to talk.

That’s not so bad as some of the people on here but I’ve now been around at least a couple of hours on the phone and that is not a free number. British Telecom charges around 3p per minute to connect to an 0203 number from my landline and Airbnb charges 7p, so 10p per minute. That is an obscene thing in itself. In the UK they make money out of folks’ misery. Why?

The issue is that for a guest, once your email and password no longer work due to hacking, you have no access to customer service. You are behind a wall… it feels rather 1984ish. You are locked out of any access. The only thing I felt able to do was open a new account with a different email address and using their online customer services “contact box”, I sent a note on the day I found I’d been hacked: “URGENT – MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED” at the top of the contact form.

Three days later and I have not even had a reply to that yet. After the relief of actually talking to someone, all I now get are emails from that link to my online Airbnb account, which won’t open as I can’t get into my account. The Customer Service manager finally dealing with my problem must be a moron as I have told them five times on the phone “my account has been hacked and I can’t gain access to your emails using my email and password.”

When I realised that nobody was responding to their consumer web page “contact”, during one of my first telephone conversations yesterday, the consumer department suggested that if she gave me the email that the hacker used (and she could see that email address), I could then gain access to my account. I very nearly did just that, then thought for a second about the risk of using it in order to get back into the account without their new password.

I’ve now found all sorts of scams written on various websites frequently happening as a result of this. People’s accounts are hacked in order to pay for bogus rooms in China / Russia / South America where their recipients receive the money. Many grim stories were also found on this site. It’s been three days and and there has still been no responsible conversation with Airbnb customer service. I still have no access to my account and no idea what is going on.

Ten Reasons Why I Hate Airbnb After Account Hacked

Posted on March 12, 2018

Below is my true and sincere experience with Airbnb. I will give you ten reasons why you should not deal with Airbnb, and I hope that governments and consumer protection organisations will do something about the ever increasing risks imposed on internet consumers. The big companies certainly will not.

I received a confirmation from Airbnb that I had “express” booked a deluxe room for five nights in South Africa, and a confirmation that the MasterCard that I had previously used for reservations with Airbnb was now registered for further purchases. I immediately logged on to my Airbnb account only to discover that someone from China (I am located in New York) had logged into my account yesterday, and someone from South Africa logged into my account today placing a reservation for a room in South Africa (total of $650) debited to my MasterCard.

My MasterCard details were now disclosed to whomever hacked my account. At the same time I called my bank making sure my MasterCard was blocked. The bank informed me, however, that the $650 had been debited. The bank urged me to call Airbnb and have them to cancel the reservation.

I tried to call Airbnb. Forget that; they deliberately don’t disclose a telephone number (Reason #1). I tried to find an email address; forget that – they only allow communication through your Airbnb account, making it difficult for you to record and keep track of the correspondence (Reason #2).

I wrote Airbnb through my account only to receive a standard reply that I could expect an answer within two days. Considering that someone with help from Airbnb (though Airbnb presumably was unaware) had stolen $650 from me, I could not accept waiting two days (Reason #3). I promptly replied demanding a call back. I got a call back within an hour’s time. The lady on the phone argued that it must have been me who did the reservation because hacking the Airbnb account was unthinkable. Basically she called me a liar (Reason #4).

I referred to the fact that I was located in New York and within 15 hours someone had accessed my account from China (a hacker), South Africa (a hacker) and New York (myself). She tried hard but couldn’t really provide a comeback. She tried though (Reason #5).

Then she argued that it must be a family member or friend that had accessed my account and that I should check up with them to make sure that it was not them who had made the reservation. Again I argued that no one but me has (legitimate) access to my Airbnb account and no friend or family member could ever dream of booking a room in South Africa on my account. I also (again) referred to the fact that the logins were made from three different continents within one day. She was firm in her “belief”, but her arguments were forced and it was easy to tell that she was instructed in “never accept liability or cause” and “always deny, deny and deny” (Reason #6).

After 40 minutes of telephone conversation, she came to the conclusion that my account may have been exposed, which most likely was due to the fact that I had either logged on from a public computer (and then forgot to log off) or responded to a “phising-mail” disclosing my password to the hackers, or that I in other ways had been careless (Reason #7).

I could easily dismiss all of her accusations, and as I was getting pretty exhausted by the whole conversation I stated that we did not need to discuss this further. If they did not cancel the reservation immediately and retuned all the money to me I would without further hesitation have a lawyer represent me. Not really because of the money (the fees would exceed those from Airbnb in no time) but because of the principle. After this I was told that my “case” would be “prioritised”. Conclusion: you need to actually make a “lawyer threat” to get serviced (Reason #8).

Later the same day I received an email in which Airbnb warned me that they had detected that my account might have been compromised. Is this really how they treat their customers? (Reason # 9). In the email they stated that they would try (only try – Reason #10) to return the money.

The above shows what I think we all now (but don’t like to admit): Airbnb (and similar super big companies) don’t care about their customers (or users as they tend to call us). They get maybe 10,000 or more new users every month. Their business model is based on the masses, not one or a few thousand that experience problems.

I’m not trying to get political here – but honestly I don’t think this would have happened if I had just stayed with small hotels and family owned shops. I have no doubt that should my Amazon, Facebook, Uber and similar accounts be hacked – it would be the same. These are my ten reasons for hating Airbnb (and similar super big companies) – but what I really hate is that I can’t stop using them. They know that all too well. I would really love if we all just gave up on those super big firms and regained control, respect, care, and decency in the course of trade.

Airbnb Charged my PayPal Account for a Fake Reservation

Posted on February 26, 2018

Late last night I had a notification from PayPal saying I had been charged £450 for an Airbnb. I looked at my emails and had three emails that stated:

1. Confirming a reservation I had never made
2. My receipt from PayPal
3. Airbnb confirming the reservation had been cancelled and due to the host’s policy I wasn’t eligible for a refund.

Airbnb said to use the resolution centre for extenuating circumstances (which was impossible as my account was later cancelled). In the next 2-3 minutes I was also sent a billing receipt email from Airbnb, an email asking for payment verification details, and then finally an email saying my account had been cancelled (in which it implies it wasn’t cancelled by Airbnb, but rather, had been cancelled by the ‘user’).

At this point, any attempts to log into my account failed (as it was cancelled) which means I had no way to access my account details, or to access the resolution centre previously mentioned, and no way to contact customer service since every help or “contact us” page seems to just link to a “log in for help” button. I am astounded at this – surely if you have a cancelled account you should have the means to be able to contact Airbnb to resolve problems? Apparently not.

I then had to Google a contact number for Airbnb. Why they couldn’t have just put that in their emails is anyone’s guess. I called customer service. There was no answer at all; I was on hold for 30 minutes. I then sent a Twitter message to Airbnb help, advising them of the problem. They didn’t reply until four hours later, and even then, only to ask for my email address. It has now been 12 hours since I messaged them and the only progress made is just messages from them asking for my account information or reservation information – no real action, no offer to call me, no information on a phone number I can call for more help, and certainly not sorting out the issue fast enough given the amount of money involved.

I spoke to my bank who said that I need to go via PayPal first, and if they don’t refund the money then I could come back to the bank who would then try to help. I raised a dispute via PayPal last night, and this morning called their limitations team to ask for more information and to get a fast resolution as it was a lot of money. To be fair to PayPal, the customer service agent was very helpful and was able to confirm during the call that my case was closed in my favour. They have now refunded the full amount back to my account.

It turns out that Airbnb was able to charge my PayPal account because they were set up as a subscription on PayPal for automatic payments, something I was not aware of and something not made especially clear on their website. Given that someone else had a very similar problem only three days ago this is obviously not a one-off instance. Someone is accessing accounts without permission – both guests and hosts – in order to steal money. Something needs to be done about this, as it is fraud.

I’m Going to Bologna? That’s News to Me!

Posted on February 26, 2018

I am currently traveling in Vietnam and decided to check my email, only to discover that I was apparently booked into an Airbnb in Bologna, Italy for the night that had just passed. Having just woken up, my enfeebled mind desperately weighed the possibility that I had somehow decided to ditch my wife in Asia and travel all the way to Europe to spend one night in Bologna – costing 500 euros – and then immediately close my Airbnb account. After a few minutes of wracking my mind it suddenly dawned on me that my account had probably been hacked.

After blocking my credit card I thought the next best thing would be to contact Airbnb and inform them. Easy, I thought. A big international company like Airbnb is bound to have state-of-the-art customer service with agents desperate to help me. I went to the site and was then told that I would need to log on to my account, the very account that had been closed down by my impersonator. No problem, I thought – perhaps I can phone them even though I am traveling with a pay-as-you-go card and ringing the US will be expensive. After several attempts, I gave up, tried to adopt a Buddhist attitude to the 500 euros I had just lost, and vowed never to use Airbnb again.

My Airbnb Account was Hacked and my PayPal Account Drained

Posted on February 22, 2018

My Airbnb account was hacked two nights ago, and the PayPal account set up for payments was drained. I followed security instructions to change my password, etc. I was asked to verify recent activity from my devices: the system (Microsoft), the state (Mississippi) and the day (0 days, 4 days, etc). Later, as I looked at the security link again – anything that might help me reach them – new activity showed up from China and Montreal.

I tried to cancel the scam reservations only to receive an email that they wouldn’t refund the money because of the host’s refund policy. Really? I found myself in a loop of help commands that got nowhere, and certainly had no way to contact them to let them know that I did not make the reservation and my account had been used fraudulently. This morning, I received an email from Trust & Safety that I may have received a “malicious message” from another Airbnb member whose account was cancelled but the links in it were, again, a maze.

“At Airbnb, we do everything we can to create a safe and trusted marketplace. Rarely, fraudulent individuals misuse our site in the attempt to obtain offsite payment or to gain access to one’s account by communicating via personal email or phone, or by sending malicious links meant to capture your login credentials, and we wanted to alert you to the possibility of such a scam.”

I had responded to no links. They were not attempting to get “offsite payment.” They hacked my account. They took my money via Airbnb’s unsecured website. Today, my Airbnb account was cancelled, leaving me no way to contact them via phone without a “verified phone number” nor links that all require you to “log in.” Even the link “contact us anytime to reopen a canceled account” makes you log in. I’ve reached out to PayPal for help. Has this happened to anyone else? Is this a large-scale breach that’s not being made public?

Booking Scam and Expensive PayPal Horror

Posted on January 18, 2018

I received an email that I was about to delete as spam until I saw it was an actual Airbnb booking for that night in a single room in Rio for the price of a week or more in a luxury home in Oz. I am in Queensland, Australia with no intentions of travelling anywhere right now. I have been charged through Paypal for $875.70 AUD through an express booking process that did not require any input from me. I’m not sure where or how this happened, but have raised disputes with the snail paced and anonymous resolution systems of each player: Airbnb, Paypal and the bank. It seemed impossible to get direct contact with any of them. Any help, shortcuts or advice?

No Way to Contact Airbnb if Account Hacked

Posted on November 1, 2017

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.

Account Hacked, Do Not Host Anyone on Airbnb

Posted on August 30, 2017

Before reading this story, quickly Google “Airbnb account hacked” and you will see this is a regular occurrence, happening to many people. Upon signing up for Airbnb, our account was hacked. Access was gained to our personal emails and even work accounts. We do not know exactly how this happened except that it was done through Airbnb. This by itself is scary and completely unacceptable. The hackers accessed and changed our bank details on the Airbnb website. Money was then stolen from us. Without getting into the details, customer service was terrible and infuriating. We fought for a month: phone calls, emails, the lot. Without our consent, Airbnb opted to close the investigation. This cut us off from replying to emails or talking to the customer service team. We never got our money back and ended up cancelling our account. I would strongly advise others to find alternatives. You have no security with Airbnb.