Be aware of phishing at airbnb • Hacker News Board

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#11

Post by squids » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 11:54 AM UTC

spacefight wrote: post #8

squids wrote: post #7

We just had a run in with a scam for a place in Majorca on Airbnb. The place looked amazing and was reasonably priced for what it was so I reverse image searched the pictures and it turns out they had lifted them from a resort in the Carribean. The google maps view of the place lined up nicely with the other property so they'd obviously put some time into choosing the right fake. Luckily we cancelled our booking with…

For reverse image search, I often use tineye.com What else is there and what did you use?

I used to use tineye but google has enabled reverse image search and being google it has far more results. Go to google images and click the camera button in the search box. It's really useful for detecting scams like this, used to for an email flat scam in New Zealand too.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#12

Post by tudorw » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 11:55 AM UTC

Perhaps Gmail et al could have something a bit more pro-active to detect this kind of bait and switch, so if an address has been used a number of times, then a small variation on that address is seen, then steps are taken to warn the user.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#13

Post by linuxydave » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 11:55 AM UTC

spacefight wrote: post #8

squids wrote: post #7

We just had a run in with a scam for a place in Majorca on Airbnb. The place looked amazing and was reasonably priced for what it was so I reverse image searched the pictures and it turns out they had lifted them from a resort in the Carribean. The google maps view of the place lined up nicely with the other property so they'd obviously put some time into choosing the right fake. Luckily we cancelled our booking with…

For reverse image search, I often use tineye.com What else is there and what did you use?

Google Image Search supports it as well.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#14

Post by ErikHuisman » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 11:56 AM UTC

spacefight wrote: post #8

squids wrote: post #7

We just had a run in with a scam for a place in Majorca on Airbnb. The place looked amazing and was reasonably priced for what it was so I reverse image searched the pictures and it turns out they had lifted them from a resort in the Carribean. The google maps view of the place lined up nicely with the other property so they'd obviously put some time into choosing the right fake. Luckily we cancelled our booking with…

For reverse image search, I often use tineye.com What else is there and what did you use?

chrome > right click on image > search with google images

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#15

Post by jliptzin » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 11:56 AM UTC

spacefight wrote: post #8

squids wrote: post #7

We just had a run in with a scam for a place in Majorca on Airbnb. The place looked amazing and was reasonably priced for what it was so I reverse image searched the pictures and it turns out they had lifted them from a resort in the Carribean. The google maps view of the place lined up nicely with the other property so they'd obviously put some time into choosing the right fake. Luckily we cancelled our booking with…

For reverse image search, I often use tineye.com What else is there and what did you use?

google has one

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#16

Post by sentientmachine » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 11:59 AM UTC

Also watch out for a bait and switch on Airbnb. I'm actually sitting in a nice apt now from airbnb. So I am happy with it. But there is another host who is trying to get me for an $1800 cleaning fee. What happens is you book a room in advance for a month. Then the host waits until 12 hours before the point of no cancelation to say "its not available but there is another one for a lot less cost that is a lot worse.". You say no before the cutoff window but then he lowers the cost to bargain basement levels. You accept. And he accepts by booking a different apartment under the haggling text message agreement. Naturally you move to requisition the disagreement as he said he would. But he stalls until the last minute and unsweetens the deal until you cancel. Boom. He has your money and can point to the fine print and his strict cancellation policy that the trouble he went through to clean the room and get it " fixed up" justifies the $1800 charge for a room I didn't set foot in.

Moral if the story. If you don't get prompt reply and if any changes occur after booking. Stay away from that host. They are fishing for free money playing the rules of Airbnb.

Airbnb is supposedly going to get back to me about this disagreement, and there is a ticket to deal with it. But its been 5 days after the event and I pinged them twice with email. My other option may be to contest the charge on my credit card. Scammers are everywhere that rules and large sums of money can be found. And many of those scammers will be right there along side you jockeying for victimhood status.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#17

Post by _delirium » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 12:01 PM UTC

squids wrote: post #7

We just had a run in with a scam for a place in Majorca on Airbnb. The place looked amazing and was reasonably priced for what it was so I reverse image searched the pictures and it turns out they had lifted them from a resort in the Carribean. The google maps view of the place lined up nicely with the other property so they'd obviously put some time into choosing the right fake. Luckily we cancelled our booking with…

I've generally found AirBnB not to be useful in big vacation spots (Spanish coast or islands, the Caribbean, Mexican coast, etc.). There are a lot of scammy and mislabeled places, and even the legit places are for the most part just a regular commercial property that's listed itself on AirBnB along with everywhere else. So I stick to just using something like booking.com to find those places.

The unique aspect of AirBnB to me is when regular people who aren't in the professional hospitality business are renting out a spare room, or renting out their apartment when they're gone. But you rarely find those in places like Majorca; that's more for if you're visiting somewhere with a bigger population of actual residents, like Seattle or Athens.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#18

Post by jcr » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 12:03 PM UTC

One thing to keep in mind is the host/owner may have been entirely fake from the start, or they may be just another victim that got their account hijacked and then used to scam you. In other words, the host might be real and properly verified, but the scammer took their account.

You might want to make sure that your girlfirend changes the password on her own account, just in case she did a sign-in on the fake site.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#19

Post by bert2002 » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 12:08 PM UTC

I always check the comments of previous guests and so far every thing was good.

Re: Be aware of phishing at airbnb

#20

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 21, 2014, 12:08 PM UTC

tudorw wrote: post #12

Perhaps Gmail et al could have something a bit more pro-active to detect this kind of bait and switch, so if an address has been used a number of times, then a small variation on that address is seen, then steps are taken to warn the user.

[deleted]