How to Recognize Scam Requests and Inquiries for your Airbnb and VRBO Rentals
WATCH OUT FOR SCAMMERS! They are getting more creative all the time.
From fake inquiries,
phishing scams,
copycat Airbnb accounts,
guests who stay with you and just try to rip you off or demand refunds for bogus claims,
there are so many scams to be aware of, this is a starting point
Does your airbnb or VRBO experience seasonal storms and power outages? Do you have a back up power source for basic guest needs?
Portable back up power for charging phones and basic needs
We have been taking note of a lot of recent scams that we are seeing from fellow hosts, in our different groups and experiences we have had ourselves.
For all of you Vacation Rental Hosts and Property Owners out there, there are some RED FLAGS, and tips to know if your inquiry is most likely a scam.
How to tell if an Airbnb booking request is a Scam.
If they ask for the rental’s exact address BEFORE booking, they are likely trying to scam you.
NEVER EVER give the address of your Vacation Rental, not even the street name, before a guest has actually booked and there is a payment confirmation. And definitely do not provide your cell phone number. They cannot see this info on your account until they are booked and paid
They just want to see the area, why can’t I give them my address?
Almost 100% of these messages are an attempt to gain your personal info for some sort of fraud such as:
they are going to take your personal address and run a mail scam
amazon or gift card scam ripping off other people
post fake craigslist rental ads using your photos and address and steal rent deposits or “direct book” your vacation rentals
they may be looking for places to break into knowing they are vacant (they can see open dates on your calendar when inquiring)
If they have your phone number and address, they can clone your listing account and in some cases, take over and steal your cell phone number and access all of your personal accounts such as your paypal and bank! This happened to me in 2019. I don’t know how they got my number, likely from my google business page, but out of the blue my phone went offline and they had stolen my number and were immediately using the 2-factor authentification to text themselves (at my phone number) and accessed my paypal and amazon accounts within miniutes. I was on it immediately with my phone compay, but they racked up over $1000 in fake charges through paypal within just a few minutes
If you have an inquiry only and they have not made a booking with their verified payment method and a verified account (ie not a brand new account created within this past year with no reviews and no ID verification), never give them the address or hint at the address.
Your listing will show approximate neighbourhood before booking, they do not need your address for any legitimate reason before booking.
The only exception I have made is for long-stay guests looking to rent for a couple months and wanting and in-person viewing, but even in this case I would offer a zoom video tour of the rental and neighborhood instead, so you can see the person too.
What If they claim their friends/family etc are renting the airbnb nearby and they are trying to find a neighboring unit.
Ask them to provide the information and booking confirmation for the other property and you can confirm how close your property is
How to protect yourself when someone asks for your property address on Airbnb or VRBO
use photo editing software to ensure your house number and address are not visible in your listing photos
regularly change your listing photo order and details
use the “approximate location” setting on your listing rather than exact location
Never give out your rental address in an inquiry or to anyone who is not a booked and paid for guest.
How to know if an Airbnb or VRBO guest is legitimate
Look at their profile before responding. If it is an older account, and has previous reviews from other hosts, they may be legitimate travellers. Give them a neighbourhood name, main landmark or google proximity to the attraction they want to see but don’t give the address.
If it is a newly created account with no reviews, no ID verification, and mentions that their “company is paying by cheque” or anything close to this, it is a scam
Do not respond to scam inquiries. But don’t ignore them either. You must report each one or your response time stats will decline if you ignore the messages. Click here to report on VRBO
VRBO’s help desk provides these tips for recognizing a fraudulent message:
Common signs of a scam
Incorrect or unusual spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.
More information provided than usual.
A request for you to communicate offsite.
A request to pay by certified check, cashier's check, or unsecured wire transfer.
No comments in the inquiry, or comments that don't match your property.
No mention about your property, locations or specifics, just generic comments like “your place will fit us, are these days available”
VRBO has a tiny link below your inquiry message to report as spam. In small grey fine print below the guest message there’s a link that says “Seem fraudulent? Mark as spam”
When should I provide my address to confirmed Airbnb guests that have booked my rental?
When you have a confirmed booking from a guest, you can send them a welcome email upon booking and then let them know they will receive the address and access information a couple days ahead of their check-in when you touch base with them for all the important info they need for their stay.
Common Info used in Scam Inquiry Messages
if they say things like “hello dear”, “kindly reply”, or I’m away on a mission overseas and can’t chat outside of Whatsapp or other non airbnb/vrbo platform (Never do this for an inquiry!) see the sample photo for common copy-paste inquiry. This is one of the most frequent, sometimes we get multiple identical inquiries in a week like this
my company is paying for my stay via company cheque (never accept any payments outside of Airbnb or VRBO)
never refund someone who “overpays” if you accept funds outside of the platform (again don’t do this!), you are being scammed and whatever funds they sent you are fraudulent and will bounce, and you’ve paid them your own money in the process
Never give out your phone number to an inquiry! Especially if they ask you to send it to them directly in some weird format
If they send you way too much, stupidly irrelevant information trying to make their inquiry look legitimate like this (absolutely fake!) especially things like they want to “use your computer”
protect your plumbing and rental with quality, decorative signs not sticky notes and paper print outs
ALL PAYMENTS MUST COME THROUGH AIRBNB or VRBO.
If you don’t have a 3rd party booking website set up for yourself to collect payments legitimately, never ever accept payments off the platform.
A scammer cannot have a verified, legitimate account to book without a credit card or online payment verified. If there are no host reviews, no verified identity and the account is new within the past few months, its is almost always a scammer. Noone can use Airbnb or VRBO to book without a legitimate payment method on file
Anyone who says someone else paying on their behalf is breaking the rules and their account will be suspended or removed. This includes “parents paying for kids” as this is also not allowed. No payments on behalf of someone else.
You are risking them gaining access to your own bank account, particularly if they send you a fraudulent cheque or e-transfer.
How to Tell if the email you received is really from Airbnb or VRBO or if its fraudulent
Have you received an email that looks like it’s from Airbnb (or your other host platform?) How can you tell if an email from Airbnb is real or fake?
Read the top Safety Tips in the Account Security area for Airbnb Hosts, how to tell if an email you received is actually fake or if it came from Airbnb directly.
This applies to VRBO or Booking.com or any other platform you use for hosting, always be sure the email is legitimate.
If you can’t be sure if the email is legitimate but it’s something you might need to respond to (Such as a warning about account suspension or termination) , don’t click on anything, don’t respond, and contact your host platform on their website chat or customer support phone number just in case. Go onto airbnb or vrbo to find their chat and support phone numbers, do not use any info provided in the email.
“Fraudulent emails can contain links to fake Airbnb web pages that try to steal your information. Don’t click links in any email you’re not sure about.
A real link to Airbnb will begin with https://www.airbnb.com “
In general, if you think its fake, and any little word is misspelled, trust your instincts. Look for spelling mistakes or odd words like “airbnb security team, or hello dear, or quick urgent deadlines to reply”. These are almost all fake.
The only email we normally recieve from Airbnb is our superhost status update.
If you accidentally click on a link, respond to an email or provide any personal information or are directed to a login page of any kind,
CLOSE YOUR BROWSER
reopen a new browser window,
Login to your Airbnb and VRBO account from your trusted link
change your account passwords immediately
add 2 factor authentication for added security
make sure your phone number and email address are correct on your account (sometimes hackers will change these to reassign your account to their own info)
Airbnb also keeps a record of emails that they send to hosts through your account. I called once about a covid update that came to my email and they could see when I received the email from their platform and confirmed the information I was calling about.
Some of our favourite airbnb furnishings from Amazon* sponsored
What is an Airbnb Phishing Scam? And what the heck is “Smishing and Vishing?”
A phishing scam is any attempt by scammers to create seemingly legitimate websites, emails, contact forms or other pop ups that encourage you to submit your real, personal information, that they then use fraudulently.
For Airbnb, a scammer may send you a fake email or direct you to a website that looks JUST LIKE airbnb but the website address is actually a spoof.
If you enter your account email and password, hackers have your personal info and can immediately access your REAL airbnb account and any personal information within.
If you think you have entered info onto a fake website or email, immediately close the webpage, open a new browser window and go to your account and change your password immediately.
Airbnb and VRBO have host support tools in the help section to report Phishing Scams.
I didn’t even know that Smishing and Vishing were things until I looked up Phishing scams with VRBO.
SO according to the VRBO host support page, here are how the two different scams work:
Smishing
"Smishing" stands for SMS Phishing. Similar to phishing, a message with an urgent tone is sent to the user to take action. With Smishing, a test message is sent to the user's phone instead of email account.
The text message usually asks the user to call a phone number or go to a Website to take immediate action.
The phone number is often answered by an automated response system. The user is asked to provide private information such as passwords or credit card information to take action. Do not click on the link or call the number.
Vishing
When a fraudster creates an automated voice system to make voice calls to phone users to ask for private information it is called Vishing or Voice Phishing.
The intent is the same as with email phishing or SMS phishing, the voice call creates a sense of urgency for the user to take action and provide information to do so. Never provide any information to automated voice system. Also note that is it is easy for a scammer to create a fake caller ID to pretend to be someone else.
Never provide any account information if you did not originate the phone call.
Report fake websites and phishing emails to Airbnb
If you believe you've encountered a web page designed to look like Airbnb to steal your info, let Airbnb know by reporting the website’s URL at https://reportphishing.net/airbnb/
The Bottom Line
If you think it looks fishy
If the account is brand new within a year
if the account has zero reviews or trips, or their reviews look fake, it could be a scam.
Trust your instinct.
Never give out your phone number or property address to anyone who has not booked your place.
Don’t communicate outside of the platform.
Always change your password if you clicked on a link or accidentally replied to a scam email