Airbnb fraud via their website booking

Hello, I would like to get some advice. I have recently found an apartment on air b&b website , I have booked it and contacted the host first before booking it. He then provided me a link where the booking was open and let me book the apartment. Once that was done there landlord provided me with the invoice details where to pay and my name and the contract length ( 2 years ) I have paid 1500 pound today after soeaking to the landlord and the airb&b support team. I have also sent them the link to clarify if this was a real booking. To that they confirmed it was as well as their supervisor who I spoke on the phone to. Today I have made the payment and called in to confirm again. However the supervisor now said that the website was fake and that I should fill out the claim form. I have also went to the bank and reported it within the hour of sending the money. This is really upsetting as now I have terminated my previous tenancy and have no where to live as well as no way of getting my money back.
Thank you

Sorry, it sounds like you’re the victim of a fraud.

Genuine Airbnb rentals will never make you pay via bank transfer, it’s all done via the internal payment system. Unfortunately Airbnb wont be in a position to offer much assistance as this was, in reality, nothing to do with them.

How it works was highlighted in another topic recently:

JF

But I haven’t contacted them for their confirmation if this was real and not a scam and they have confirmed it as well as I have the proof of their email saying this was on their website and it’s real advertisements. They also provided the same details of the adress the rent snf deposit sum as well as the full host details.
Thank you

Don’t use Airbnb to find long term lodging and don’t pay off the platform.

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We’re a forum of Airbnb hosts, unfortunately not customer service agents who can help with your issue. All we can do is confirm your gut feeling: it does seem like you got scammed.

The order of things they asked you to do certainly sounds like a scam. Legitimate hosts only take payment through Airbnb and it’s fairly simple: you see all the prices up front and pay through the site.
The part about the landlord providing invoice details sounds like other scams I’ve heard of. It’s usually at this point that they send you to a website that is NOT airbnb. The length of your contract also makes this very suspect. Anyone who is doing long term rentals would not use Airbnb: 1) landlords want a real contract with deposits and background checks 2) They wouldn’t want to give Airbnb 12-20% of their 2 years of rental revenue.

It sounds like you checked with Airbnb to confirm that the web site was legitimate. Was it an official Airbnb domain (ie. Airbnb.com (or whatever country you’re in like airbnb.ca, not redirected to another site?)) If they told you it was the real site you should continue to lean on them to reimburse you.

Be sure you’re calling the ACTUAL Airbnb support and not a phone number a scammer may have provided.
The phone numbers are available here: Airbnb resolution center and contact information with phone numbers for most countries.

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I am not understanding. So you paid not though Air?
I had once a guests who stayed 2 months and only wanted to pay through Air. But most long term deals even if started through Air continue direct pay to a host

The hoar provided me with a booking link Whitchurch has invoice information as well where I should pay. Before doing that I got in touch with air to find out if This was legitimate and for them to check the link to which they said it was all fine.

You need to contact Airbnb straight away through the contacts provided in an earlier post.

We can’t help you here as we are forum of hosts.

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