The Internet reveals numerous opportunities for criminals to use fraud to rip people off. This is currently also the case with Airbnb. We'll tell you how you can protect yourself.
In recent years, Airbnb has developed into one of the leading platforms for arranging short-term rentals. According to the company, more than 448 million overnight stays were booked via the portal in 2023. This corresponds to an increase of 14 percent compared to the previous year.
But on platforms like Airbnb, where numerous people make bookings every day, fraudsters are not far away. We will therefore explain to you what you need to pay attention to to protect yourself from fraud on Airbnb.
Airbnb scam: This is how the scam works
Booking accommodation on Airbnb is relatively easy. All possible properties can be selected using numerous filters and the desired period of time can be set.
The booking is then usually requested directly via a button on the page. But there is currently a lot of noise going around watchlist-internet numerous accommodations that invite you to contact us via email.
Accordingly, it can be seen from the advertisements that inquiries via Airbnb will not be accepted. Contact with them is therefore only possible by email.
Such an email is then followed by an explanation that the supposed landlords are having technical problems with the Airbnb calendar. For this reason, the availability of the accommodation cannot be compared with other platforms. To complete the booking, it is necessary to follow a link to Booking.com.
Fake links from Booking.com
The criminals try to lure Airbnb users from the platform to a fake website. The aim of these fake sites is to steal money from their potential victims.
The email, which supposedly comes from Booking.com, looks loud watchlist-internet deceptively real. However, it is a fake.
This can be seen from the internet address of the link to the platform: “booking.stays-3876566623.live[…] is not the real Internet address of Booking.com.”
Anyone who clicks on this link will see their data for the accommodation directly stored. All you then have to do is pay – but this means that the money disappears and no accommodation is booked.
If you find such an advertisement on Airbnb, you can almost certainly assume that it is a scam. It is advisable to report the respective listing directly to Airbnb.
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Source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2024/10/10/betrug-airbnb/
