17/03/2022
AIRBNB SCAMMERS WARNING:
I wanted to send a host in the Ukraine money by booking a room (obviously wasn’t going to stay). For some reason it wouldn’t go through due to an issue. So I contacted AirBnB Live Chat. I was speaking to a representative when I received a call from them. Now I’m generally suspicious but they were able to tell me the other hosts name, the exact amount I wanted to transfer, etc – basically they had access to the system. They explained that there was a problem with the other host’s account which was why I couldn’t send the money easily however I could do it with the assistance of AirBnB. It sounded a little strange and I insisted I wouldn’t do it over the phone, that there must be a financial transaction trail and then he said he would send the request through PayPal from Airbnb.
I logged into Paypal and saw that it was a personal account request and nothing to do with Airbnb, so I said “This isn’t right. I don’t think so.” And hung up.
I tried to log back in at that point to discover my account no longer existed. Completely wiped from Airbnb’s system.
It’s been almost two weeks now, the problem is still not resolved. Airbnb customer help is basically non-existent.
I have been hosting since 2016 and as recently as the middle of February had someone staying. I have provided reference codes of those stays in order to help them “find” my account – which I was able to access from my email but still no success.
Either their system has been hacked or they have some very unscrupulous people working for them and they do not do any kind of background checks.
I no longer want to even host with this company after this experience as the trust factor has vanished. The client care is completely non -existent. Most chats through Facebook and the live chat have been with bots. However the general public needs to be warned, especially as people are handing over their financial information for bookings.
