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Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

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Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#1

Post by asdojasdosadsa »

Case: Not so technical colleague got scammed for 2 months rent. What can he do?

Steps: 1. He found apartment listing on immobiliare.it

2. Some emails were exchanged

3. He receives the link to the _real_ airbnb listing

4. He cant find it there, and the scammer sends the phishing page[1] (from @expertdesigner.eu)

5. Soon after he receives another email saying that the database is down from @airbnb.sa.com and he should meanwhile move the money using transferwise.com

6. Payment done

7. Scammer replies: Payment received

The login page was quite well made, and I think most of non technical people might get fooled

[1] The URL: https://airbnb.com-itinerary.app/rooms/762837232/files/login.php?id=572465&locale=en&sale=203&

Thoughts?

Re: Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#3

Post by asdojasdosadsa »

philpem wrote: post #2

This is gonna sound a bit granny-suck-eggs... but I hope your friend reported it to the police?

Yes, reported to :

- The police

- https://reportphishing.net/airbnb/

- Airbnb report on the listing page - but now to think about it, we can't be sure the listing itself is connected to the scam. The host of the listing is a superhost (whatever that means)

Also the police said, there's not much they can do

Re: Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#5

Post by gameofcode »

asdojasdosadsa wrote: post #3
philpem wrote: post #2

This is gonna sound a bit granny-suck-eggs... but I hope your friend reported it to the police?

Yes, reported to : - The police - https://reportphishing.net/airbnb/ - Airbnb report on the listing page - but now to think about it, we can't be sure the listing itself is connected to the scam. The host of the listing is a superhost (whatever that means) Also the police said, there's not much they can do

Report to TransferWise as well, I've never used them but have heard their support is decent - that's not to say they'll be able to help you but it's worth doing for sure.

Re: Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#6

Post by nwsm »

I don't have any advice but I hope they are able to recover their money. Shitty people like that are why some US states like Massachusetts now require all renters to find apartments through a registered broker. Sounds nice and safe but it ended up in me paying 4 months rent to get a new apartment. (2 months rent + security deposit + broker fee which was over a month's rent)

Re: Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#8

Post by BoorishBears »

gus_massa wrote: post #4

The title is slightly confusing. Note that it is a ((fake Airbnb) owner), not a (fake (Airbnb owner)).

Literally makes no difference. Both convey the same problem.

In fact if anything, the story is about a (fake) AirBnb owner. The AirBnB was real, the “owner” was fake.

Both are accurate unless you somehow imagined this would be a story about a fake founder of AirBnB (in which case I’d say the confusion is more of a personal problem).

Re: Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#9

Post by asdojasdosadsa »

gameofcode wrote: post #5
asdojasdosadsa wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, reported to : - The police - https://reportphishing.net/airbnb/ - Airbnb report on the listing page - but now to think about it, we can't be sure the listing itself is connected to the scam. The host of the listing is a superhost (whatever that means) Also the police said, there's not much they can do

Report to TransferWise as well, I've never used them but have heard their support is decent - that's not to say they'll be able to help you but it's worth doing for sure.

Thanks, I forwarded this

Re: Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

#10

Post by asdojasdosadsa »

sonicxxg wrote: post #7

Is "Not so technical" euphemism for naive? This sucks, but also seems like a low effort scam.

Well, I have seen quite many phishing pages and scams, and this was not that low effort scam - probably setting up all the domains and phishing pages etc has taken a bit of work and technical skills
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