Leicestershire residents were among those caught up in fake Airbnb scams last year

Action Fraud show there were 19 crimes reported in county

LEICESTERSHIRE residents were among those caught up in fake Airbnb scams last year.

Statistics from Action Fraud show that there were 19 crime reports from our area mentioning the online holiday rental marketplace in 2019, with many cases involving people being scammed into booking fake properties using fake Airbnb sites and off-site transactions.

Action Fraud – which released the data under freedom of information laws – didn’t provide details of the 1,272 total cases across the UK in 2019.

However they did provide a sample of case details across the country, which paint a picture of people being caught out by scammers into paying for fake rentals via bank transfer.

In one case, Action Fraud was called after someone booked a villa on Airbnb and received an email through for the confirmation of the booking – however it appeared to be a false booking.

The caller looked up the villa and it had disappeared from the website, and then contacted Airbnb who said that there was no booking to begin with.

The caller has also stated that there was no proof of the booking on the callers Airbnb account – and crucially, the caller was asked to send the money through a bank transfer.

Another case involved cancellation fraud.

The caller received a cancelled reservation on Airbnb, and the owner emailed referring them to another owner and asked them to rent another apartment.

They then cancelled the booking days before arrival and refused to send back the money.

Several of the reported incidents involved fake pages designed to look like Airbnb.

In one case the Action Fraud notes said “Caller made a transaction to an unknown person when looking for a flat to rent.

“Contacted immediately because of really good deal and absolutely trustworthy.

“Emailing and chatting mail and WhatsApp.

“Made fabulous fake link of Airbnb but cannot open it now – after the transaction, fake page is deleted.” by

In another case involving a fake Airbnb site, the scammer also sent emails posing as Airbnb, which were later found not to be from an official Airbnb email address.

More than a third of people (33.5%) caught up in the scams across the UK were London residents.

A spokesperson from Airbnb said that users should never be asked to pay via bank transfer, and that as long as users stay on Airbnb and only pay and communicate through Airbnb, they will always be protected.

They said: “There is no evidence this data relates to bookings made through Airbnb.

“Airbnb protects hosts and guests by handling all payment and communications through our secure platform.

“We work with external partners to report suspicious websites brought to our attention, and partner with experts to provide online safety information for our community.

“We are investing heavily in measures to continue building trust on Airbnb, and in the rare event of an issue our global community support teams are on hand 24/7 to help.”