Airbnb Rental Scam Has Strangers Showing Up To Homes That Owners Never Listed
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- Опубликовано: 30 ноя 2021
- A Southern California family had quite the shock when strangers showed up at their door, saying they had rented the home on Airbnb, since the homeowner never listed it. Kristine Lazar reports.
I trust Airbnb 100%…… to do nothing at all unless media gets involved
tHATS goes with everything these days , included EDD lol
welcome to democracy
@@ark194 talk to your local news
@@ark194 I wish you the best of luck putting trust in someone and having that trust broken sucks
Airbnb needs to held responsible. If news media hadn't contact them that man would still be fighting them to remove it.
Unfortunately most of the times citizens get taken for a ride until the media/ TV stations get involved. It's a real shame.
So true. 15 years ago I hired Home Depot to change my roof. Long story short. They left roof unfinished and a torrential rainstorm came and basically flooded my house. For 11 Month I was paying my mortgage. Paying rent now, since I could not sleep in my house. Had to refinance my house to fix house, $48,000 in damages. And what did Home Depot do to help? NOT A DAMN THING! They hired a subcontractor that skipped out... I, had to hire a lawyer (sorry ass lawyer to boot) to get Home depot to make thing right. In the end, we went to mediation. Settled for $50,000, in which the sorry ass lawyer, convinced me to take and took $10,000 of that. So the mortgage and rent I paid for myself? Yea...anger doesn't start to explain... I go to Home Depot still sometimes but I alway mess some shit up just because. ;)
How much "trust" can they be building when they keep a fake listing up for weeks even after being notified it is a scam? I don't know how the law works, but I hope they are for sure 100% liable to both scammed renters and inconvenienced (or worse) legit owner/occupants once they've been notified (if not before.)
This is why ABB is not a legit company.....
Lol, must suck showing up somewhere and then not getting in
This is why you have credit card in that situation, because you can do a charge back since that situation become a scam if Airbnb refuses to resolve the situation.
Airbnb was negligent here after the fact because the scam was reported and the ad still remained up for weeks.
Ban? There should be legal and criminal consequences!
If you vote for politicians that will put in judges that favor corporations over consumers that will never happen
Ain't gonna this CA you're talking about where criminals run the state.
Volient criminals smashing stores are let go as soon as they are caught. Do you really think an online rental scam is going to get police attention?
Government loves thsese giga companies.
"it got me understanding just how easy it is to do anything online, without consequences." understatement
Scammers everywhere.
I literally see people on Facebook blatantly listing food stamps, xanax and norco pills for sale. No one cares or worries about getting caught.
@@jaketapper8910 disappearing laws
He should sue air b&b. He notified them that the property wasn’t his and asked them to remove it, they failed to do that. Negligence on their end.
The company should be held accountable as well for allowing such thing to happen.
Nobody lost any money.
The problem is this is all done online, not in person face to face. So Airbnb or other websites just like it have no way of knowing if the person posting the ad is legit or not. They like all the rest just cross their fingers hoping everything is on the up n up. And if not after SEVERAL COMPLAINTS from the person who gave up their money, that's when they give a refund. But sad to say this will never end no matter who people book a reservation through.
AirBNB should have taken the listing down when the owner reported it the first time.
Airbnb is not responsible. The scammer is.
@@OceanicNASA I think airbnb shares some liability don't they get a fee of some kind?
it comes down to having factual info. If this were my house I would be having PTSD wondering who was going to show up (day or night). Who Try to get in my house or maybe be inside my house when I wasn't home.
From the getgo, Airbnb is a company with no morals and integrity. Years ago when they started their operation in San Francisco, they sent invitations to property owners enticing them to list with them. I responded to the invitation and asked them how they will address the fact that it is against SF city law to rent under 30 days? Their response: "That is not our problem. That is the problem of the property owner." This scam is happening and will continue because Airbnb does not bother nor care to check if the person listing is the legal owner of the property. It was very easy for my tenant to list my property with them. I could have ended up with a lot of liabilities. Airbnb enables scammers to defraud unsuspecting property owners while they continue to operate and rake in profits without any consequences of the damage they have done to innocent people.
Potential class action law suit
“The homeowner was correct”. That’s AirBnB’s response! Wow.
This happened to a friend of mine several years ago. Her and her husband had bought a farm in North Carolina, pretty soon after they got moved in some couple pulls up in the driveway and says "we're here for our 3 night stay", my friend told them they must have the wrong address. The couple showed her that her house was listed on AirBnB. They had taken photos from a public website from when the house was for sale.
Why did it take so long for Airbnb to address this?
Because air bnb are the same bad actors that they claim to admonish.
Cause they still make money if they let it things happen.
The interview explained it. Only bad press makes some companies actually do something.
He explains why right in the video 2:06.
Fake listings are pretty easily detectable with a bit of common sense. A 7 bedroom 7 bathroom villa in California for 450 / night, come on.
450 is pricey af id believe it, but also I’m 19
I sincerely hope that the people that were scammed sue and this guy sues for his time and the nuisance their company created.
Who was scammed?
@@AlexpxThreeTen people that paid 450 a night to rent a house on Airbnb plus service fees and cleaning fees and transportation etc
Airbnb statement…no apology let alone compensation for inconvenience coz by their negligence
The scammer can just use another email and create another account. Airbnb needs to do more.
Exactly. It's like they don't understand how the internet "works"
@@aaronq2627 lmao. I’m pretty sure they do understand.
The actual AIRBNB is just a call center in India. I'll bet those bandits had a heck of a time figuring that one out.
I was once on a summer vacation with a family. We booked a property and Airbnb has charged our credit card for half the amount (or all of it/can't remember now). Then the property owner told us that the listing wasnt 'active' and we can't actually stay there. The money was taken from us. Customer support was basically non existent. If we didn't have more money it would be the end of our family vacation. Since then Airbnb is an equivalent of a criminal scammer for us.
Yessss, now the host should go and open a new account on Airbnb and spend a whole 5 min doing so before they can pick up where they left off
Ya but how are they making money?
@@AlexpxThreeTen when they rent other people's property they give airbnb their own bank account so they get the money 💰, or it could be PayPal or other forms of payment
It’s a “one and done” type hustle.
They list the house with the pics from the MLS listing.
Then they get a nice weekend booking for $900 plus $150 cleaning fee. Easy $1k more if it was a longer booking.
Checkin Friday, checkout Sunday. Get paid Monday by direct deposit into your account.
BUT the platforms normally hold your first payment for 30 days as a way to “verify” the listing.
The scammers will have a friend book their listing at a low rate and then wait the 30 days to get paid.
It’s very hard for a novice to contact platforms by phone.
I would never trust a listing with no reviews.
It has to have a minimum of five reviews.
Never pay outside of the platform, never.
Choose a Super Host every time you can.
AirBnB should send a letter via snail mail with a confirmation code to the address in order to confirm the listing.
Not “snail” mail. You mean the mail?
Air B&B definitely doesn't take any action. I once rented a room through them. When I arrived, the house was nothing like on the listing and it was in a ghetto. It was insanely dirty, but they took a cleaning fee. Since it was very short notice and I was in a new city, I had to stay there for the weekend by I asked for a 50% refund. I did put up a bad review, detailing the roach poop in the kitchen, having to share the bathroom with a lot of people, lots and lots of hair that one or more people shaved off, and the list goes on. A few months after I checked on their site again. It was still up.
Kind of insulting for AirBnB to call the fraudster a host.
I gave up on Airbnb and decided to go to hotels directly. Just tired of these apps taking advantage of people....
I am going to say probably at least 25% of their listings are scams. This is unacceptable. Needs to verify ownership of property but uploading a mortgage or title before being able to rent out property.
This is what happens when you let people in a business with little oversight. This is why people should rent from vacation rental companies who manage properties.
Airbnb should be sued for not taking action before.
The truth is Airbnb has no idea who is the host nor who is the guest.
All a guest and host have to do is to upload any ID (passport or driver's license) and it gets automatically accepted by the 'system').
They have no way nor are they in any way interested to know who owns the property being listed on their platform.
I was looking to book a property on airbnb 5 years ago. The deal sounded fishy- the "owner" who emailed me insisted on cash deposit instead of a credit card. Luckily I did some more searching and found an exact replica of the property on vrbo, with a different contact number and name. Air bnb did nothing when I filed a complaint, and I don't think the real owner took any action either.
It’s like that scam that basically steals your house because scammers file false deeds and basically kick you out. People are messed up.
This is what happened when the so called customer service got outsourced outside of the USA. I noticed companies always decline majorly when doing this.
Yes AirBnb will not help you if anything goes wrong. They are the absolute worst when it comes to customer resolution. I wouldn’t be surprised if the listing was still up.
The money should only be released after the person stayed at the house. So then there would be no way to scam anybody.
There must be so many AirBNB Murders swept under the rug
2:06 unfortunately he is 100% right. This happens alot with politicians , crime and billionaires corporations...
Airbnb quality control is extremely poor! Not only they side with “super host” even when they falsify their listing description, they also never allow negative reviews on their site for all their listing and they lack timely response when issues occur. They need to start verifying all reviews and allow them on site in order for customers to get accurate assest rental decision. Covid cleaning charges & protocol is also a joke! Just another way to pay more money to rent without getting the actual service promised
AirBnB is cringe
Airbnb should be sued, and the person who'd listed it should be brought to justice. Period! It is their responsibility to verify the legitimacy of their clients before accepting payment. Airbnb should take the loss and pay those customers back.
He should sue Airbnb into bankruptcy.
Here is a tip: when you do a rental just about anything, you got to make sure to check for the host's ratings. If the host has zero, few ratings, or mixed reviews, big big red flag!!! Why don't people bother to check for ratings and fall for scams, then complain about it? It only takes one second check. This goes for anything in life, there is a reason reviews for businesses are there for people to see.
Airbnb has all the resources to conduct background check on every host, where the person has lived according to the postal records. But the company chose not to do it. I don't trust Airbnb with their business practice.
if u
how’s about hosts with their 1st list, no review yet? are u ignoring them?
I think it's absolutely stupid to rent a home than just renting a hotel. There are many versions of a hotel from the budget friendly, to the ultra luxury, and I would feel a lot comfortable renting a hotel that is way more private than renting a home where no one knows if or how many hidden cameras there are and I feel people only rent homes just to show off.. Who TF pays more than $450 a night to RENT a home? I know this was a scam, but I'm sure there are listings out there for the same price at least.
Maybe people are renting a home for an extended stay, or maybe they want a kitchen to cook their own meals or maybe they are traveling with a large group and they need the extra room or space? In many instances it’s actually more cost effective to rent a home then to stay at a hotel.
For a person who used to spend 150 nights/year in a hotel, I think it’s very stupid for someone to have such a short sided position.
Okay I was with you until you said no one knows how many hidden cameras in an Airbnb.. Hotels all over have been busted for having hidden cameras so you aren’t safe from that no matter how luxury a hotel is.
@@Xoxotho I would think so but a reputable hotel chain would have to answer to a corporate office and take accountability for their actions. Some people at that local office gets fired and some get suspended for acts that is against the policy, then the things that happen in the background that the public doesn't know that the corporate office does to that particular office, but a house owned by a regular person doesn't have to answer to no one and just kicks off the app while they're are other out there to jump back on to do it all over again. Airbnb is only out there because of marketing, but it doesn't mean they are the only ones out there that rents out a house.
Airbnb does nothing to verify the home owners. there's tons of renters renting the house out to Airbnb for profit without the owners permission or knowledge despite the lease contract stating no subletting allowed. the guests can trash the place and the renters don't care, they'll keep leasing it out to the next one and the next. new guests can come in and find the place unliveable (because the original renter never visit the place themselves) and the owners gets a trashed house with the renter disappear when lease ends. owners can report to Airbnb all they want or try legal ways to charge or evict the renters but anything would take forever, the lease would end long before anything gets done.
I didn’t think AirBnB didn’t release funds to the host until after the guests take possession of the property.
Airbnb need to do more. They should verify these listings.
How irresponsible of ABB! They don’t even do a background check to see if in fact this is ur house?? They are reliable 100%!
Companies don't give a damn until they got some bad press.
This has been going on forever.. Air B'n'B still hasn't fixed this?! 😡
AirBnB needs to verify addresses. We (My hubby and I) rented a place in Atlanta. The address given to us at the time of renting was different than the address we were directed to once we were in Atlanta. Then we were given an extra set of instructions (Don’t tell anyone we rented from AirBnB, etc.) Very sketchy and scary. We would’ve canceled but we had our dog with us. Learned Tip: do a reverse search on the photos posted for the desired rental.
JUST LIKE ZILLOW, THEY WENT DOWN THE TUBES BECAUSE THEY NEVER SHOWED THE RIGHT FOTO FOR THE PROPERTIES THEY WERE LISTING.
No Airbnb for me. Not because of scams, but because of their response to the homeowner, basically lying about taking off the listing. They should have gone after who listed right away. Bad move, Airbnb!
Airbnb did a similar thing to me. I hope some government action is taken.
Deal with it yourself instead of hoping for the government to help you.
This been happening for a long time and will continue to happen.
Glad this came into my feed, I have never used it nor will I, just sticking to traditional hotels
Airbnb customer service is horrible. But still does not make any sense. As a host. You don't get paid out until one day after. And it won't hit your account for 3-4 days after that. Almost think the homeowner could take airbnb to court over not taking the listing down.
Thank you. Makes no sense. Just someone being an ass.
Thank you. Makes no sense. Just someone being an ass
Thank you. Makes no sense.
You have scammers that don't know that, they look for any way possible to scam. My guess is they tired to use the listing to get off site bookings.
My man kept it 💯 with that bad publicity or nothing will happen. Yes!
I stopped putting my place on airbnb when people started to squat and not leave and the states allowing people to do so!
Airbnb should be fined for false advertising, and be suspended for listing until they fix the problem. There should be a bureau that oversees Airbnb and each complaint should cost them a big fine. Otherwise, why would they behave when they get a cut from false listing. It's consumers and home owners that pay the price.
This happen to me just a few days ago..family member lives just next door ..he’s elderly and didn’t know what Airbnb was or where these this caravan of people came from?
I came 🚗 in town just an hour later before the incident !! Family caught them & asked them who are you and your at the wrong house !!! They left without incident!! Still this is scary and pray it doesn’t happen again..Thank god someone was home!! I would. Because I’d Hate to think they would just break in?? God please protect us
And in the states, showing up uninvited to a home can be a death sentence
Earlier I always use Airbnb whenever I travel, now I would rather stay in an actual hotel.
I don't understand why somebody would want to go stay in someone else's home anyway. You all don't know what's going on in that house. At least at a public hotel, you pretty much know that it's a business that is reputable even if it's raggedy.
Saving money. I offer rooms in my house for $40 a night while the average motel (Super 8, even Econo lodge) is easily $70-110 per night due to how I live near a big city.
Saving money. A hotel in average costs $200 per night in the US. If you're staying for a week, then that is $1,400 in total. Not everyone can afford that amount.
Good job banning the scammer from your website, they certainly do not have any more of these listings and cannot possibly make more accounts to do the same thing
/s
These criminals need to be punished more severely
It’s only a matter of time until someone gets scammed out of $1k, throws a massive tantrum, and things really go south. AirBnb, c’mon: get serious.
Yeah removing that guy and ego…. Ridiculous p.
No apologies from Airbnb, they don’t give a shit about anyone
File a lawsuit!
That's crazy
😅😂😓 how are criminals this brazen? I can't imagine someone showing up to my place saying we've come to stay.
THIS JUST HAPPENED AT MY HOUSE WHO DO I CONTACT? Airbnb when I contacted them acted clueless.
👆👆⬆️⬆️I also fell victim to one recently,lost close to 3000$, but hopefully i was able to get it back through the name written up here 👆👆.
Y’all can reach him out through the name written above 👆 he should help you guys also .
Airbnb doesn’t send confirmation letters when setting up a rental? Genius
$450 a night for a house seems too good to be true? Shit I’m living in a NICE Airbnb in CA right now for $330 a MONTH. Just a bedroom but still. I don’t need all that space to myself.
Dude it’s a whole villa to party at. You should see prices of the presidential
rooms at expensive hotels
Those poor owners and renters. I use abnb all the time. It would ruin our trip. Thinking I’ll call ahead from now on. Ugh
This happened in upstate NY too
Payment is only made to the host 24hrs after booking in date, this phantom host would not of been paid and the guest would of been refunded.
Typical of an internet company not to do anything at first or even care. When your in a foreign country making two dollars an hour it’s to be expected.
Airbnb reached out with a statement that said…
MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY, $, MONEY MONEY. MONEY.
Holy cow... this is the EXACT used by Raymond Remington in
*The Blacklist* Season 5 Episode 4 _The Ending_
Remington finds homes to rent from the post office's out of town notices.
Why didn't I think of this?
Good Idea 💡
Airbnb's "support" is terrible. Once we rented an apartment that was filthy and some of the faucets weren't working. We had to find a another one after a flight of 6 hours and had to move our luggage along all the groceries we bought before getting to the place. Airbnb support took a long time to investigate the claim even though we supplied them with pictures of everything from the start and they ended up refunding us only 70%
Not good enough. What are you doing to combat it from happening again & again?
Wait a sec. I can break into empty houses, change the locks, rent it out and MAKE MONEY. oh ho ho ho
Good one.
THEY SAME WAY UBER/LYFT VERIFIES THEIR "EMPLOYEES" SHOULD DO THE SAME FOR THIER LISTINGS.
Tech Company can careless... remember their motto is disrupt at any cost for profits!
Move fast and break shit....literally.
Very sad
I think google business sends a verification letter to the address.... surprised airbnb doesnt do something similar
At least the accounts need to show ownership of the properties.
Sue Airbnb
they need to close this airbnb down for good!!!
The "host" will be back. Why not file a police report and investigate and charge them for fraud? They can't list them again in a prison cell
AirBNB told me they would ban a host who sexually harassed me trying get into my room at night for it. I reported it. Thought they were really banned. Then I found out they just blocked me from seeing the listing, you can still book there in Sri Lanka. What’s crazy is it means I can’t even review it. Maybe I should have sued AirBNB in the US? That’s where AirBNB is based?
Not surprised. AirnB listers get away with so much.
Interesting...so I can make a few bucks on the side just by using online photos. $350 a night with stunning mountain views, for a extra $50 a day you get your own personal cook( lunch and dinner only)
That should hook someone 😂
And when the guests show up and there is not house, they call Airbnb who find them another place and you don’t get paid.
@@AlexpxThreeTen so why are they calling it a rental scam when noone is really getting scammed. Lol
As a host of many years, I have to say that Airbnb and other similar short-term rental services' quality are definitely going downhill. Will cancel all my listings. Doesn't worth the trouble.
Just happed at my home. Great job AirBNB 👏
All those houses were so ugly.
AirBnB: "Trust is at the heart of everything we do..."
Oh good. Hey, AirBnB. I'd like to rent your most expensive property, but I don't have a credit card.... I can pay you when I'm done staying there... You trust me tho, right?
:-)
I had a moldy dirty little cottage in puerto Morelos . The pictures where beautiful nothing what I experienced . I contacted Airbnb right away. They escalated the case but after that nothing happened. Airbnb didn’t care they told me move out asap after I sent the pictures from the moldy place. After that Airbnb didn’t do anything further ! Absolutely nothing ! My credit card company opened a dispute case and with all provided evidence I got refund!
Again Airbnb didn’t do anything !
I feel for the people who show up for their booking and realize they have been scammed. From places being filthy, to not having the conveniences as described or to arrive to find the listing is false. They have Been billed already for the full amount plus fees. For them to find an alternate place when funds are tied up isn’t always easy. If the issue wasn’t dealt with for the home owner it most likely wasn’t for the renter either. Airbnb seriously needs to make some changes to their lack of customer satisfaction.
Is nice is that home is. It’s true good to be true 🤗
I worked in one of these platforms. This is 100% a fault of the website. Is not that difficult for such a platform to find ways to check if the posted house is a scam or not.