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I’ve gotten 3 requests in the last 21 hours for the same dates (Sep 9-16) and with similar wording. I’ve now blocked my calendar until late Sept. I’ll reopen dates later and hopefully this nonsense will be under control.
The one about reporting me to the police made me lol.
I was getting the same scams and blocked off the calendar as well.
OMG. While Airbnb busies itself with “Project Lighthouse”, giving lip service to weeding out discriminatory hosts, which I would venture a guess are in the vast minority, they allow multiple new accounts to be set up daily from these scammers.
Here’s a thought- when a new guest account is opened up, the first message they send to a host should have to go through some kind of screening process before it is actually sent. That could eliminate these accounts before hosts ever have to deal with them.
How does blocking the calendar through Sept. help, unless your calendar is only open for 3 months or so in advance? The scammers could just enter dates in October, for instance, to send one of these requests.
So what is the scam with this?
@Claudia_Linx - You click the think, looks legitimate but asks you to put in your credentials. If you do, the jerk takes your information, logs in and changes all your information to themselves. Bye bye control over your listing and your bank info and payments. There are other posts on this if you want more info. Fun times.
I would just report those profiles to Air. I would not shut down just because I got scammer inquiries.
If you are referring to me saying I blocked the dates, I’m not shutting down due to scammers. I don’t get or want advance bookings anyway.
Maybe they are sort of doing this.
I received Airbnb customer service message I had a booking request and due to some questions about the registration, they needed 4 hours to get the issues resolved. They had blocked those dates for the guest. If the issue was not resolved, Airbnb would release those dates.
Nah, very little human contact involved until someone actually bites. It’s an automated process sending this stuff out, just the same as it getting Airbnb account in the first place.
JF
FYI - the ISP already shut that site down 
Ah, the “Kindly give me your bank information so I can kindly send you lots of money” wording… Such fun.
I was a victim of a scam and my listings now are no longer visible however I can manager my current bookings. My listings are not visible any longer. I have reached out to airbnb and all I’ve been told is my case has been escalated to a case manager however its been almost 4 weeks and I have not been contacted . Every time I’ve contacted them they tell me the exact same thing. Any suggestions?
Try their facebook or twitter feeds. I’ve heard they are sometimes responsive there. They are short handed with staff but the squeakiest wheels will get greased.
Thank you, I have called everyday for almost 30 days now. Emailed, Tweeted, reached out on Airbnb Help as well.
You are pretty much stuck then. I advised getting your listings on other platforms like VRBO, making your own website and promoting the properties without Airbnb’s help.
Ditto—soon if now is your peak season for booking. VRBO wasn’t difficult to create but it did require time. I was able to copy/paste much of my Airbnb verbiage.
You make it sound as though you are dependent on Airbnb to get bookings? Certainly they are the industry leader at the moment but it’s a mistake to rely on them solely. Devote some offline time to growing your business.
Thank you for info. I do have my listings on other sites like vrbo however most of my bookings come from airbnb. Im looking into some other avenues as well. Thanks for the advice.
