Thanks for saving me from what could have been trouble!

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Hi. Lisa here. Over 3 years a 5* Superhost, etc. Market mostly business travelers. I
I just wanted to thank you all for keeping me out of what could have been a bad situation. I’ve read the forums for most of the time I’ve been a host, and gotten some great tips (thanks to whoever suggested using Magic Eraser on stainless steel appliances!). This time, I think you helped me dodge a bad one. I am on Instant Book, but today I received this Inquiry for a booking starting this weekend:
“Hello, I want to stay for 6 nights. Your place is amazing but i have some doubts and i need to clarify. I’ve found an0ther listing simolar with yours with more reports. You can see the 2nd listing : www.airbnb-rooms-2213.c om You need to copy the lnk to your WEB BR0WSER and remove the space after “COM” then you will be able to see it! Please check and let me know urgently. Thank you”

The guest had no reviews, no info in their profile and had just joined Air this month. So
remembering all of the cautionary tales and great advise from this forum, I immediately went to Airbnb and declined due to “being uncomfortable with this guest”. The message I sent to the guest was:
“Hello Diana. I don’t know why you wish me to go to another host’s site, but I do not go to unvetted websites. Also you gave me no reason for me needing to go to this site. If you are looking for a discount, we do not do discounts. I believe that you would be better suited to another host.”

Although I am tempted to see what’s on that other site (is it a real listing?) and to try to figure out what “Diane” wanted, my curiosity isn’t worth risking a virus infection on my computer.

I am curious to know if anyone else has ever gotten a request like this (note that she did not tell me WHY she wanted me to go to that other site…also the bad grammar/typing/spelling), In any case…Thanks Forum Peeps!

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Hi @LisaHS

Glad to hear the forum has been useful for you.

It’s a common scam @LisaHS please don’t visit the site they have linked to. Just report the inquiry to Airbnb.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/971/how-do-i-know-if-an-email-or-website-is-really-from-airbnb

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Be still my beating heart!

No but others have reported similar requests here.

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I had the same message sent to me last week (I don’t have instant booking). I knew from reading this forum that it was a scam to get host to log into account and then the sender of message gains access to host’s password.

I was about to report it to Airbnb when I got a message from Airbnb telling me that they had deactivated that guest’s account. I guess Airbnb is now able to detect some scammers.

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Yes, I have but through VRBO more often than Airbnb. Good call not clicking on it. Absolutely a scam :+1:

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Many hosts have been reporting this phishing scam. It has nothing to do with looking at another listing- it’s how they get your account info, then they can change the payout info to redirect payments to themselves. Never cick on any link in a guest message and don’t respond at all to these- just report them to Airbnb.

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I did respond (see my original message), but it was through the Airbnb site. Whoever created the scam did create an Airbnb account and messaged me through that account, so responding was safe. Thank goodness!

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Responding through Airbnb messaging may not be unsafe, but there is just no need to respond to a scammer.

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You are certainly right about that! Next time, I’ll just report to HQ and be done with it.

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Except that if it was an inquiry and you didn’t respond within 24 hours (Using the platform not the links) your inquiry response rate would be affected. Oh the irony.

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When it happened to me I just called Airbnb and they removed the scam request, so this wasn’t an issue @Lynick4442

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That is exactly why I responded!

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I don’t respond to these inquiries. I click the little flag next to it and report it instead. It’s not a real inquiry you don’t have to respond. You can call in and have it removed if it makes you feel more secure, but you can just flag it instead.

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That’s good to know. Thanks JJD.

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Avoid like the plague. Not only deny her but do call the CS and report it immediately. Simply denying means she’ll do this thing to other, more unsuspecting hosts. This is bad, bad, bad and she needed to be blocked her account removed. We get these all the time at work and I work in IT.

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Why decline? That affects your acceptance rate, which a scammer shouldn’t be given the opportunity to do. There’s no need to either pre-pprove nor decline an Inquiry. If it’s not a scammer, but is inappropriate to your listing somehow, just message back without declining. There are no penalties for that.

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Thanks for the tip, adrienne12, I called CS and they are going to remove the scammer’s account. They say it won’t effect my rankings at all.

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I don’t trust Airbnb to not count it as a response.

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When you do it, it pops up a little message saying that you actualy shouldn’t respond or something like that. I’ve never had any trouble for it. I seem to attract spammy inquiries, only flag them and don’t respond to them and still have my 100% response rate.

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I haven’t had any spammy inquiries (yet) but this is really good to know, thanks for posting.

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