The Airbnb Scam Travellers requirement To understand about

We’ve been booking apartments on Airbnb for over 3 years as well as we’ve spent hours upon hours on the website, as well as yet, we almost fell for this Airbnb scam that would’ve expense us over $3,000 USD.

The Airbnb scam was so ingenious, as well as so well put together that I feel it’s extremely important that I share it with you all to ensure that you don’t end up falling into the exact same trap.

Here’s exactly how we almost fell for a fake Airbnb account as well as almost lost $3,300.

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We had been searching for a nice apartment in Lisbon, Portugal for about 3 weeks. We’d quite much seen every location offered on Airbnb in our cost variety however had no luck, so we started browsing on Craigslist.

We were amazed to see that there were a couple of gorgeous locations that were within our cost range. I contacted a few as well as the owners got back right away.

One owner in specific (who had a nice 1 bedroom right in the city with a huge patio) got back to me as well as seemed to be rather “legit”.

His name was (supposedly) Reynolds Daniel as well as he told me that he felt more comfortable having me book the apartment with Airbnb.

He went on to state that Airbnb offers purchasers security to ensure that I might just put up the full payment, see the location before inspecting in as well as if I didn’t like or it wasn’t as it appeared in the photos, he’d enable a full refund with the Airbnb platform.

Please Note: This Airbnb scam was done on a fake Airbnb website as well as in no method effects the method the authentic website’s security, individual experience or refund policy works. The scam you’re about to checked out about is a tricky one, however it is not really Airbnb being included in shady practices. If you continue to only utilize the genuine Airbnb website to interact with holds as well as book your accommodations, you will have no issue.

This sounded perfect for us. We understand the rules on Airbnb as well as that they offer refunds for dissatisfied customers, so we were happy to have some type of insurance coverage for our preliminary deposit.

Finally, after a few more days, Reynolds Daniel sent me the link to book his apartment on the Airbnb website.

Here’s where the Airbnb scam begins.

When I clicked over to the link, at first whatever looked fine. The site looked precisely like Airbnb at very first glimpse (even to my eye, having spent countless hours browsing the site).

I put in my dates as well as voila, the cost showed precisely what Mr. Daniel stated it would be in his emails. €650 per month for three months plus a €650 deposit, plus an Airbnb charge for a overall of €2,700 ($3,300 USD).

At this point, I called Dariece into the room.

“That Reynolds Daniel guy lastly got back about the apartment as well as sent me the Airbnb link. Let’s book it!”.

To checked out about our great experiences with Airbnb as well as other on the internet apartment sites, inspect out: 9 gorgeous Apartments We’ve Rented around The World

Dariece was super excited as well as agreed that we should book it right away.

She sat down next to me as well as scanned the website since she wished to checked out the reviews. sure enough, there were ten 5 star evaluations on the listing as well as whatever looked great. The evaluations were worded somewhat strangely, however nothing as well out of the ordinary.

Then we noticed that the URL of the listing was a bit bit off. It showed “www.airbnb.com-request-booking.space/booking/…”. We were a bit confused by this, however as the URL started with “www.airbnb.com” I figured there was no method it might be a SPAM site.

It was my comprehending that if the URL started with the appropriate brand with a dot com, it had to be authentic.

We then scrolled down as well as scanned the site with a somewhat more scrutinous eye. this time around we realized that the listing included the apartment’s precise address in Lisbon.

Usually, Airbnb doesn’t tell you the precise address up until after you book in order to keep the privacy of the owner’s place as well as stop people from soliciting apartment offers outside of the Airbnb platform.

Now we were suspicious.

Finally, we spotted a working, online chat icon at the bottom right of the screen (yes, you might chat with it). While it would be fantastic if Airbnb had this feature, we were well conscious that they do not.

At this point we ran a Google browse that went something like this:

“airbnb.com-request-booking.space/booking/ fake Airbnb website scam”

Sure enough, our browse brought up a few extremely telling results, including an article on The Guardian as well as one more on Huffington Post.

We checked out the article on Huff as well as after just a couple of minutes, we realized that we were almost the victims of a typical Airbnb scam. The website we were looking at was a fake Airbnb site.

See Also: 10 unique Airbnb Rentals around The World

The article was titled: “Beware This Evil-Genius Scam” (probably a much better title than I selected for this post) as well as it detailed the experience of the author who really fell for the fraudulent website technique as well as lost $3,800 USD.

She likewise explained the red flags she should’ve noticed on the website like the reviews, the strange URL (although his URL was different than mine) as well as the online chat icon. The only difference between the author’s story as well as ours was that she really lost her money.

View From a great Airbnb Booking We had in Valparaiso, Chile

In the author’s defense, she experienced the scam from a different angle that would be far harder to catch. She was really interacting with the homeowner with the chat on the genuine Airbnb platform.

She discovered a location she liked, contacted the owner via Airbnb’s chat function as well as began a dialogue with him on the site. The owner ultimately told her to send an email as well as their communications continued over email.

Then, after whatever was agreed upon, the owner emailed her a link to his fraudulent Airbnb listing to make the payment.

An email From Our con Man

Had I already been speaking with the owner with the Airbnb platform, I may not have been so scrupulous in inspecting the website as well as I may extremely well have fallen for the technique such as this bad spirit did when he lost $36,000.

Think about it — if you’re chatting on the genuine Airbnb site, then you chat over a couple of emails as well as then the hold sends you an email back to Airbnb, you’ll most likely be quite quick to book.

Luckily, Dariece has a keen eye for scams as well as we were able to thwart the efforts of this would-be cyber thief.

Had we booked, we would have then bought our flights to Lisbon, gone there, taken a taxi from the flight terminal to the address in the booking only to discover out that there is no such apartment at that address as well as we’re out $3,300!

See Also: Airbnbs in Paris – A listing Of The top 10 Best

Heed This Warning

If you’re booking on Airbnb, be extremely wary of interacting outside of the platform as well as don’t book apartments with any type of Airbnb websites that don’t look precisely like the routine site.

Keep your eye out for little differences on the site as well as especially, inspect the URL to make sure it’s a typical Airbnb web address.

We’re all for contacting holds to request discount rates or special offers, however when they send you the links, make sure they’re on the authentic website. If you have any type of doubts whatsoever, get in touch with Airbnb client support as well as send them the URL to inspect its authenticity.

We are so happy that we didn’t autumn for this Airbnb hoax, however we are regular individuals of the platform.

We feel that if we hadn’t spent hours upon hours on the genuine site in the past, we might have quickly booked this apartment on the fraudulent site as well as been out $3,300.

This publish is for anyone who may discover themselves in this exact same situation. Whether you discovered your apartment on Craigslist or one more free apartment forum, or if you were sent a link from a hold on the actual Airbnb site, be conscious of this Air bnb scam.

Have you run into this Airbnb scam or any type of others that you feel may assist travellers? Please share in the comments below as well as assist others prevent getting ripped off!

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The Airbnb Scam Travellers requirement To understand about

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