This isn't about airBnB, this is about all the big web tech companies, which found the algorithm and got the monopoly. They created new markets and can't be bothered to shake out the many scammers who find the myriad loopholes in their big, dumb systems. This goes for Amazon products as much as Google SEO. B/c of their monopolistic power, they just move on, and leave a wreck in their wake, which becomes our web and environments.
I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
111–120 of 632 posts
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> The main downside for me concerning AirBnb is it takes a long time to analyze the listings to find quality accommodations. In my view this is major. To describe it better - need to read "between the lines" of misleading representations of properties. Lots of property owners goes to great extends to make property look way better, bigger, nicer than it really is and to conceal obvious negative points that become app…
How is this different from a hotel? From rentals in general? I guess you know what you're going to get if you're staying at a national chain that you've stayed at before, but there's not always one available or in your budget.
HotelTonight (sadly recently purchased by AirBnB) has a very robust review system and a very responsive customer support system. If you ever have a bad experience in a hotel room while booking through their app you can always contact them and they will contact hotel management and the problem will almost always very quickly be resolved.
Booking.com has way more properties but does not always properly vet them. Its easy to find that you've booked a property but the property owner is miles away and does not speak your language (i.e. English). That said, their customer service often resolves things.
In my limited impression Airbnb has gotten better at customer service but has basically pivoted out of their core business model (i.e. providing short term stays) and at the same time provided huge incentives for people to mislead people with respect to the listing. They are consistently the hardest to verify (i.e. that what you are reading or seeing is real) and I would really only use them for very boutique properties that can't be found on other platforms.
In some ways it just depends on how much up front time you have to do your own vetting and how much risk you are willing to tolerate for a potentially experience. AirBnb is high in both categories with results that very rarely are worth it to me.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#113Mentioned this in another comment, but it blows my mind that the author ends with: > "Even after a month of digging through public records, scouring the internet for clues, repeatedly calling Airbnb and confronting the man who called himself Patrick, I can’t say I’ll be leaving the platform, either. Dealing with Airbnb’s easily exploitable and occasionally crazy-making system is still just a bit cheaper than renting…
Even after a >>>month of digging through public records...Dealing with Airbnb’s easily exploitable and occasionally crazy-making system is still just a bit cheaper than renting a hotel." It's constantly amazing to see how little people value their time when it comes to stuff like this. Maybe when we're getting yearly salaries we don't compute out the hourly cost but, man, do the math once in a while.
It wouldn't be outrageous to suggest that someone who took the time to intentionally study and go into journalism, would have more than a monetary interest in "investigating things." Or that someone who had been personally scammed would have more than a monetary interest in investigating that particular scam. In other words, investigating is probably fun for her, and the added element of revenge/justice only adds more fuel to the fire.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#114I wonder if I almost fell for this (or similar) in Pattaya, Thailand just a few days ago?
[1] - https://abnb.me/eUIhQCkMe1
[2] - https://abnb.me/DvHRkqsMe1
At first, I thought maybe this was just a shady property management company hocking two otherwise-legit, similarly-furnished condos with the same floor plan in the same building through two different accounts - but they are in different buildings separated by about half a kilometer according to the map.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#115Does the scam described here count as wire fraud?
"In the United States, mail and wire fraud is any fraudulent scheme to intentionally deprive another of property or honest services via mail or wire communication. It has been a federal crime in the United States since 1872."
In addition, is there any prospect of a civil class-action suit against AirBnB?
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably AirBnB would ban the user and the user still wants to be able to use the service in the future.
Who cares if they get banned from a fraudulent business? Why would anyone want to continue doing business with a company if they treat you this way? When I'm at the point of doing a chargeback, it's a "burn bridges" move and I'm not going to be doing business with the company anymore, regardless of whether they ban me.
In the modern internet world, there's very often little/no choice of services. Initially there is competition; one gets an edge; everybody flocks to that service; the other services wither and die.
So the idea that "I can just take my business elsewhere" is maybe a dying notion, in this modern economy. They're not brick-and-mortar stores where you can just walk down the street to another one.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#117Mentioned this in another comment, but it blows my mind that the author ends with: > "Even after a month of digging through public records, scouring the internet for clues, repeatedly calling Airbnb and confronting the man who called himself Patrick, I can’t say I’ll be leaving the platform, either. Dealing with Airbnb’s easily exploitable and occasionally crazy-making system is still just a bit cheaper than renting…
I wonder whether there is some sort of penny-wise pound-foolish mentality at work with most AirBnB users that causes them to continue choosing AirBnB to save money over hotels even after being majorly scammed like the people in this article were?
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm somewhat surprised that this would be permitted by the card issuer. Aside from that... why aren't Airbnb detecting when multiple properties have very similar photos and investigating this themselves? (Of course they may be, and these examples are cases where they didn't pull the fraudulent listing).
It's largely the card issues fault. They charge a fee for each chargeback and punish or increase the fees for merchants who receive many chargebacks, so merchants try to avoid chargebacks, which includes banning everybody who uses them.
The bigger concern from the merchant's side is that they are almost always swallowing the refund. The refund is not being provided by the card issuer or payment network, they just remove it from the merchant's (in this case AirBnB's) account.
Declining a charge in this way is thus less insurance, and more telling the merchant "I am not paying you." While it may be justified (like in this story), the merchant is never going to be happy about losing those funds and losing the control over the funds.
I had a similar situation with the App Store where I purchased a subscription under a mistaken assumption and when I could not find any recourse through Apple or the publisher (I simply could not find any way to get in touch with anyone), I declined the charge on my credit card. This led Apple to block all activity with that card - so much so that I was unable to download any free apps until I added another payment method to my profile.
When I attempted to contact Apple to resolve this issue I was told that it was "for my security", to prevent further fraudulent transactions on my card. Explaining the situation, and that there was no fraudulent use of my card or account, just a misleading subscription did nothing to help. They insisted that the only way to resolve the situation would be if I reversed the dispute from the credit card (thus releasing the funds back to Apple), and only after that was completed would I be able to try to get a refund from Apple. Left with no other choice that is what I did.
The issue at hand here was obviously that Apple was refusing to give up control to the credit card companies. By effectively banning any user that disputes a charge they are able to force their users to keep all complaints within Apple's purview (and they do not provide a way to submit complaints digitally).
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#119Why don't companies like AirBNB who have a lot to lose (reputation wise) from a (small?) number of scammers sue those scammers into oblivion? Not only are they violating the TOS but they are committing fraud, and likely breaking a few other laws. AirBNB must know who they are as those scammers are getting paid, right? It would be expensive for AirBNB (they would certainly lose money) but it can't cost more than the r…
The vast majority of Airbnbs I’ve stayed in were illegal hotels/rentals... only a handful were legit renting out a spare room / couch surfing type deals and the first time I did that I had to pretend I was the host’s college friend. Airbnb is basically built on shifting liability to shifty people running hotels out of rentals. Also, pro tip, I’d guess at least 50% of the airbnbs I’ve stayed in do not wash the sheets…
> Also, pro tip, I’d guess at least 50% of the airbnbs I’ve stayed in do not wash the sheets in a washer
It happens at hotels, too, and it's why I always take the sheets off of the bed when I check out. Putting the sheets on is the worst part of making the bed but taking them off takes two seconds. My hypothesis: if lazy hosts/housekeeping are forced to go through the trouble of putting sheets on then they might as well use a clean set. And if the host/housekeeper was going to change the sheets anyway then maybe I've made their job just a little bit easier.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#120I'd be tempted to work that flophouse over with a sledgehammer and a crowbar. Would the scammers have any recourse?
That would have been the move.
- Destroy the flophouse - Leave a 5 star review on your original booking saying how nice the place was - If the scammers attempt to complain to AirBnB or charge fees, kindly tell them that's not the place you stayed and you have never seen that location. Refer them to the original listing for the beautiful home where your reservation was.
Scammers would be claiming you destroyed a place that AirBnB has no record of you ever staying in.