Without loft and without 2.400 euros Airbnb becomes new focus of scams

With Easter just around the corner, holiday condo scammers work at full capacity. Common sense and prudence are fundamental.

With Easter just around the corner, holiday condo scammers work at full capacity. They look for their victims in specialized portals in holiday rentals such as Airbnb, Niumba and Homeaway, convince them to close the deal off the platform and "raise" them between 1.000 and 3.000 € that will never recover.

I wanted to die of rage, recalls María Puig, who has just been swindled 2,400 euros. "When I entered the Airbnb page and saw that my reservation was not there, it is like entering your house and seeing that you have been robbed, the same feeling of palpitations and impotence." Maria is the mother of two children and, along with another family that also has two children, wanted to spend Easter in New York.

We were looking for a lot of months in advance and so we were not surprised that there were real bargains in Manhattan, now I think they should be scams as well," he explains. They fell in love with a large and luxurious loft they saw on Airbnb, at the foot of Harlem and near Central Park. It was advertised as "Elegant 5th Avenue Penthouse" and cost € 320 a night.

"Everything seemed right," says Maria. On the Airbnb page there were several photos of the 'loft', along with opinions of other users who had spent their vacations there. He contacted the owner, Larry, through the Airbnb platform's messaging system, but Larry responded by email, with the excuse that he had the flat on several platforms and it was better for him to speak in the mail.

Larry's email address was booking@airbnbview.com, false as a tough Sevillian, but containing the word "airbnb" made the family suspicious. "He told us that he needed us to confirm the dates, to give us confirmation and a better service," explains María. A couple of mails later, when everything was already talked about and the reservation had to be closed, Larry stopped responding.

This made the families nervous, who had already bought the plane tickets, and relaxed their defenses: "We were so eager to enjoy New York that when we finally answered to tell us that we should confirm the reservation with a transfer, we do not hesitate and We did it, "explains María. To make it more credible, at the same time they got a supposedly Airbnb mail message, with their corporate logos, photos, same typography, links to a fake website and a reservation code: "PGR109".

The address to which the money was to be sent was in Poland. Here Maria acknowledges that "we had to have thought about it", but right now she was traveling, with a lot of work, and paid. "And when you've paid, all that information disappears and you can no longer find the flat on Airbnb or Larry," he explains. It was then when Maria searched Google and found that "it is full of Airbnb scams".

Indeed, with the hatching of tourist floors and their reservation through the internet, have also sprung the scams that take advantage of this flourishing market, being Airbnb the main affected by the fact of being the best known platform. According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), 72% of Spaniards booked their home over the Internet in the past holidays.

The "fashion" in previous years were the "owners" who were abroad and could not teach the floor, but they asked for an advance in exchange for the keys. These scammers used to swarm through general-floor rental websites and Airbnb appeared only as an "intermediary" to make payments.

But, as we see in the forums of the network, in recent years other "modus operandi is being strengthened: opening false tokens on holiday rental platforms, with their comments and everything. If someone wants information, they are asked to follow the conversation by email, off the platform. When the victim is already "hot", websites and emails are created on the corporate side, making haste to make the transfer in 24 hours.

This happened to me exactly with a flat in London, explains Abel in an internet forum formed, like many, spontaneously after an article on the subject, followed by dozens of comments from people cheated: Sylvia has been stolen 3,000 euros; To Carmen, still stunned, 1700 euros: "It was all ok but I never got the confirmation receipt for my reservation." Abel, who stole 1,000 euros, explains that he was told that he "gave them payment problems", so "they indicated alternative mails to me to transfer to an account owned by Airbnb Lisboa, all with mails whose structure and everything is Airbnb ".

There are travelers' forums that have their own dedicated AirBnb sub forum, such as "Bad Experiences with Airbnb: Apartments and Rooms" or, on TripAdvisor forums, "AirBnb Scams". It is possible to say that some complaints must be caught with pliers, since the platforms pay people to write against the competition.

But, even taking this into account, the number of stories like Mary's is important. And most affected are very angry with Airbnb: "They do not pay attention, a bad call center that does not even help you, you stay like a fool," explains Abel. When Mary claimed she was informed that, having made the transaction off the shelf, she had no right to anything.

Never leave the platform

Andreu Castellano, an Airbnb spokesperson, reiterates "It is always clear that you should never leave the platform. This ensures that payments are secure, are made for the exact amount and the transaction is correct." The owner-guest communication through the messaging system is recorded and can be analyzed in case of complaints.

María says that "at no time appeared on the Airbnb page any message warning of possible scams, nor asking that you do not have contact with the owners outside the platform." Teknautas has proven it, carrying out the same steps carried out by María Puig to rent a similar apartment and at no time were we actively warned or with alerts regarding scams or leaving the platform. "There are no alerts, but at all times we show a very clear message that says 'Protect your payments. Never pay a reservation outside Airbnb,'" a spokesman for the company said.

According to the Airbnb spokesperson, the messaging system has "an automatic system that if it detects that you are typing an email address, a phone or a web address, the layer automatically". As for the floors being offered, "all the reviews are authentic, travelers can only leave a review of the place after having been there".

But if we listen to the stories of Abel or Maria, we see that something has failed because the criminals have been able to put false comments and also discover the email addresses of those interested. Most of these scammers are part of international mafias, especially from Eastern Europe. They are artists of the scam of all life and their tricks to hurry the pardillo. And also experts in cloning the pages and official messaging of these platforms.

Our friend María was cheated with a loft in New York, but in Spain there are also cases of this type of scam, especially in tourist sites. According to the Office of the National Police of the Balearic Islands, only 200 complaints were filed last year. Little can the police do in these cases because thieves use methods to be anonymous and many are not even in Spain, which is very difficult to locate them.