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Post by High Priestess on Jun 4, 2016 18:01:40 GMT
See the article:
www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jun/04/travellers-fake-airbnb-scam
It's discouraging to me to see, over and over, that people are unable to realize the danger of being lured offsite to communicate with potential hosts/guests. That leads DIRECTLY to elaborate phishing scams because once the criminal has your email address (Which they get when you go offsite to communicate with them) they can send you any number of very elaborate emails that will I guarantee you look EXACTLY like they came from Airbnb. The only way to avoid these scams is to PLEASE avoid contacting a host or guest offsite until the reservation is booked! This should be obvious, but far too many people apparently know next to nothing about how phishing scams work.
So, when someone says that they need to communicate offsite, you should get suspicious and
You should also report them to Airbnb. It should be patently obvious that since all Airbnb messages get sent direct to our email address, there is no legitimate reason why anyone could not communicate with you via AIrbnb messaging.
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Post by CC on Jun 5, 2016 4:46:01 GMT
I don't get why people go around the system! Ok, let's take George Washington. Airbnb didn't exist in his time & there was no technology. Do you think if all that technology was suddenly invented & fell in his lap that he would immediately endeavor to circumvent it?? WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT??
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Post by helgaparis on Jun 5, 2016 11:59:50 GMT
Good you found that article Deborah. I read it on the morning news and wanted to post it too. That's a great example to all those clever people who think it a great idea to save some fees.
My sister set up a listing, but her husband is not convinced, so it's offline. She used airbnb as a guest for a few nights on a business trip. Being my sister, she knows it all after that and told me in the tone of advice to the clueless newbies:
"A collegue explained to me recently how it really works. You use airbnb only for the first contact and then you take the host's card for further stays."
- "What card?"
- "His business card of course! (Hear "Silly" in the tonation) the host has them on the counter and you call him and pay cash on return trips! The host gets to keep his airbnb fees that way."
-"I have cards and I may give them or they may take them, but I will book them at least twice on airbnb and most of them I won't take directly against cash on arrival ever. How crazy is that? If they don't come, I'm not paid, I'm not insured either. It's a mess to keep calendars updated. And all that for lousy 3 % on my side? Besides I hate entitled people and if someone starts like that and you accept cash deals, you have them on your dinner table and get to hear all their success stories afterwards. No, thank you!"
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Post by High Priestess on Jun 5, 2016 14:10:05 GMT
I don't get why people go around the system! Ok, let's take George Washington. Airbnb didn't exist in his time & there was no technology. Do you think if all that technology was suddenly invented & fell in his lap that he would immediately endeavor to circumvent it?? WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT??
I dont' think this woman really understood that she was going "around the system." She made two big mistakes -- the first was to email the host directly, using an email that may have been shown in a photo on the listing. (Hard to get an email across any other way-- it gets censored out -- and Airbnb is taking more care now to remove photos with text in them too). She had no idea, clearly, how to do that was to open Pandora's box. THen, she got emails in reply, which she THOUGHT were from Airbnb,as they were very cleverly designed to look JUSt like Airbnb emails. So she thought she was staying within the system! One would think it would be patently obvious that if one is paying via wire transfer, one is NOT staying within the system, but some people are just dumb. That was her second big mistake -- paying by wire transfer. She thought it was okay because she thought Airbnb was telling her to do that. DUh! ANd so she was dumb and she got scammed. And others will continue to get scammed making the exact same mistakes and falling into the exact same trap that these criminals set.
It isnt' any more dangerous to accept a return visit from a guest directly, than to find someone on Craigslist -- but doing that does introduce extra work for the host. There are too many hosts on AIrbnb who have never rented out property before, and someone who doesn't know how to do standard property rental, has a lot to learn. People dont' think things through far enough. For instance, you can NEVER hold a space for someone, without a payment in advance to hold the space. And you should always require a security deposit. So once you start realizing how much work it is, it's simpler to just use Airbnb.
I had a booking through Sabbatical Homes, and the guy who booked had the hardest time paying me the advance deposit -- he had no existing PayPal account and had to set one up. Then when he set it up, he couldn't figure out how to check the button so that he wouldn't get charged a fee when paying me, and so he paid a fee. ANd he had to break down his deposit into smaller amounts as PayPal wouldn't let him pay more than a small amount. SO he had to send 4 different payments. It was a lot of work, and would have been easier if I just said, "GO on AIrbnb and book thru there." |
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Post by helgaparis on Jun 5, 2016 16:58:31 GMT
I enjoyy a free paid night as a direct booker will not come. I cashed her check a month before arrival, my before airbnb terms. Only it's more difficult to ask for checks to be sent by mail for a 40 Euro night, if it's a repeat guest. For higher amounts, it's easier. International payments are very expensive too ...
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