We’ve been reserving flats on Airbnb for over Three years and we’ve spent hours upon hours on the web site, and but, we virtually fell for this Airbnb rip-off that may’ve price us over $3,000 USD.

The Airbnb rip-off was so ingenious, and so effectively put collectively that I really feel it’s extraordinarily essential that I share it with you all so that you just don’t find yourself falling into the identical entice.

Right here’s how we virtually fell for a faux Airbnb account and almost misplaced $3,300.

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We had been trying to find a pleasant condominium in Lisbon, Portugal for about Three weeks. We’d just about seen each place obtainable on Airbnb in our worth vary however had no luck, so we began looking on Craigslist.

We had been amazed to see that there have been a few lovely locations that had been inside our worth vary. I contacted a couple of and the house owners obtained again instantly.

One proprietor particularly (who had a pleasant 1 bed room proper within the metropolis with a giant patio) obtained again to me and gave the impression to be fairly “legit”.

His title was (supposedly) Reynolds Daniel and he instructed me that he felt extra snug having me e book the condominium via Airbnb.

He went on to say that Airbnb presents patrons safety in order that I may merely put up the complete fee, see the place earlier than checking in and if I didn’t like or it wasn’t because it appeared within the photographs, he’d enable a full refund via the Airbnb platform.

This sounded excellent for us. We all know the foundations on Airbnb and that they provide refunds for sad clients, so we had been completely satisfied to have some sort of insurance coverage for our preliminary deposit.

Lastly, after a couple of extra days, Reynolds Daniel despatched me the hyperlink to e book his condominium on the Airbnb web site.

Right here’s the place the Airbnb rip-off begins.

After I clicked over to the hyperlink, initially every part regarded positive. The website regarded precisely like Airbnb at first look (even to my eye, having spent numerous hours searching the positioning).

I put in my dates and voila, the value confirmed precisely what Mr. Daniel mentioned it will be in his emails. €650 per thirty days for 3 months plus a €650 deposit, plus an Airbnb charge for a complete of €2,700 ($3,300 USD).

At this level, I known as Dariece into the room.

“That Reynolds Daniel man lastly obtained again in regards to the condominium and despatched me the Airbnb hyperlink. Let’s e book it!”.

Dariece was tremendous excited and agreed that we should always e book it instantly.

She sat down subsequent to me and scanned the web site as a result of she wished to learn the critiques. Positive sufficient, there have been ten 5 star critiques on the itemizing and every part regarded nice. The critiques had been worded barely surprisingly, however nothing too out of the peculiar.

Then we observed that the URL of the itemizing was a bit of bit off. It confirmed “www.airbnb.com-request-booking.area/reserving/…”. We had been a bit confused by this, however because the URL began with “www.airbnb.com” I figured there was no method it could possibly be a SPAM website.

It was my understanding that if the URL began with the right model with a dot com, it needed to be genuine.

We then scrolled down and scanned the positioning with a barely extra scrutinous eye. This time we realized that the itemizing included the condominium’s actual tackle in Lisbon.

Often, Airbnb doesn’t let you know the precise tackle till after you e book in an effort to hold the privateness of the proprietor’s location and cease individuals from soliciting condominium presents outdoors of the Airbnb platform.

Now we had been suspicious.

Lastly, we noticed a working, reside chat icon on the backside proper of the display screen (sure, you may chat with it). Whereas it will be nice if Airbnb had this characteristic, we had been effectively conscious that they don’t.

At this level we ran a Google search that went one thing like this:

“airbnb.com-request-booking.area/reserving/ faux Airbnb web site rip-off”

Positive sufficient, our search introduced up a couple of very telling outcomes, together with an article on The Guardian and one other on Huffington Put up.

We learn the article on Huff and after simply a few minutes, we realized that we had been virtually the victims of a typical Airbnb rip-off. The web site we had been taking a look at was a faux Airbnb website.

Don’t fall for Airbnb scams. Signal-up for (the true) Airbnb at the moment and get $35 off your first reserving. If you have already got an account, no drawback. Merely log-out and arrange a brand new account utilizing a brand new e-mail to get the $35 credit score. All it’s a must to do is Click on Right here to get our particular Goats On The Street deal.

The article was titled: “Beware This Evil-Genius Scam” (in all probability a greater title than I selected for this put up) and it detailed the expertise of the creator who really fell for the fraudulent web site trick and misplaced $3,800 USD.

She additionally identified the pink flags she ought to’ve observed on the web site just like the critiques, the unusual URL (though his URL was totally different than mine) and the reside chat icon. The solely distinction between the creator’s story and ours was that she really misplaced her cash.

Within the creator’s protection, she skilled the rip-off from a unique angle that may be far more durable to catch. She was really speaking with the home-owner via the chat on the true Airbnb platform.

She discovered a spot she preferred, contacted the proprietor by way of Airbnb’s chat perform and started a dialogue with him on the positioning. The proprietor ultimately instructed her to ship an e-mail and their communications continued over e-mail.

Then, after every part was agreed upon, the proprietor emailed her a hyperlink to his fraudulent Airbnb itemizing to make the fee.

Had I already been speaking with the proprietor via the Airbnb platform, I could not have been so scrupulous in checking the web site and I could very effectively have fallen for the trick like this poor soul did when he misplaced $36,000.

Give it some thought — if you happen to’re chatting on the true Airbnb website, then you definitely chat over a few emails after which the host sends you an e-mail again to Airbnb, you’ll in all probability be fairly fast to e book.

Fortunately, Dariece has a eager eye for scams and we had been capable of thwart the efforts of this would-be cyber thief.

Had we booked, we might have then bought our flights to Lisbon, gone there, taken a taxi from the airport to the tackle within the reserving solely to seek out out that there is no such thing as a such condominium at that tackle and we’re out $3,300!

Heed This Warning

For those who’re reserving on Airbnb, be very cautious of speaking outdoors of the platform and don’t e book flats via any Airbnb web sites that don’t look precisely just like the common website.

Maintain your eye out for small variations on the positioning and particularly, test the URL to verify it’s a standard Airbnb internet tackle.

We’re all for contacting hosts to ask for reductions or particular presents, however after they ship you the hyperlinks, be sure that they’re on the genuine web site. If in case you have any doubts in any respect, contact Airbnb buyer assist and ship them the URL to test its authenticity.

We’re so completely satisfied that we didn’t fall for this Airbnb hoax, however we’re frequent customers of the platform.

We really feel that if we hadn’t spent hours upon hours on the true website previously, we may have simply booked this condominium on the fraudulent website and been out $3,300.

This put up is for anybody who might discover themselves on this similar scenario. Whether or not you discovered your condominium on Craigslist or one other free condominium discussion board, or if you happen to had been despatched a hyperlink from a bunch on the precise Airbnb website, pay attention to this Air bnb rip-off.

Don’t fall for Airbnb scams. Signal-up for (the true) Airbnb at the moment and get $35 off your first reserving. If you have already got an account, no drawback. Merely log-out and arrange a brand new account utilizing a brand new e-mail to get the $35 credit score. All it’s a must to do is Click on Right here to get our particular Goats On The Street deal.

Have you ever run into this Airbnb rip-off or any others that you just really feel might assist travellers? Please share within the feedback beneath and assist others keep away from getting ripped off!

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