Airbnb - 'Olena' trying to set up account using our email

Post scam emails to warn other rental owners, or if you are not sure if an enquiry is genuine, put it up here and see what others think.
Sunbeam
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Airbnb - 'Olena' trying to set up account using our email

Post by Sunbeam »

We have received an email from a genuine Airbnb email address (ie not a fake site) asking to confirm a new account - using our business email address. We are now checking that our email address hasn't been hacked as why would someone try to do this. We have reported to airbnb.

Anyone else has this experience?
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Cymraes
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Re: Airbnb - 'Olena' trying to set up account using our emai

Post by Cymraes »

Sunbeam wrote:We have received an email from a genuine Airbnb email address (ie not a fake site) asking to confirm a new account - using our business email address. We are now checking that our email address hasn't been hacked as why would someone try to do this. We have reported to airbnb.

Anyone else has this experience?
Yes fairly frequently but not with airbnb (yet)

I have a couple of .com domains and I often get signed up for things by employees of a company which has the same domain name but a .ca extension. I've even had directors sending me their board meeting minutes as one of the has used the .com address.

Last one was an attempt to set up a Linked In profile - you'd think they'd know their own email address. Most annoying was the accidental registration by them of my domain to the google docs service.

There was also the case where the idiot web designer set up a web page with a dummy admin email - unfortunately he picked my domain so I got the lot! I could have wreaked havoc with his clients e-commerce but luckily for him I'm not that sort of person
Sunbeam
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Post by Sunbeam »

Thanks Cymraes - perhaps just irritating rather than something to worry about.
mmg
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Post by mmg »

Oops! I received an email this evening from airbnb asking me to confirm my email address to make my listing live. I have no wish to list on airbnb, and as I don't know how to check the origin of the email I reported it as a phishing scam to outlook.
mmg
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Post by mmg »

Just looked at the airbnb facebook page and three people have reported the same issue, emails sent asking people to confirm email address in order to make their listing live. None of them have set up listings.
Bunny
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Post by Bunny »

I've just had the email asking me to confirm my email address. I do however, have an Airbnb listing which is probably just a coincidence in that if they send out enough emails, sooner or later they will hit on someone with a genuine listing. I have no intention of responding to it.
Sunbeam
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Post by Sunbeam »

We do have an Airbnb listing - but use a different email address. We set the listing up before we got our own domain. So this request to confirm a new listing is from our business domain email - which we don't advertise on our website (we have an enquiry form). I wonder if email addresses have been found in some kind of hack from a listing site (which we link to our business email).
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Given Airbnb's recent cold calling campaign do you think this might be some kind of misguided marketing wheeze? Email enough people and of those who phone to say "surely some mistake?" enough will be persuaded to list with them if they do not do so already?
mmg
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Post by mmg »

My email was sent to my outlook account, it is only displayed on facebook, pinterest and homescape.
mmg
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Post by mmg »

I don't have an airbnb account so I posted on their facebook page asking if the email was genuine. They are asking recipients of the email to tweet a copy to them on Twitter@AirbnbHelp. I've already deleted mine, and I don't have a twitter account, but if anyone has one would they mind tweeting it?
linda que linda
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Post by linda que linda »

mmg wrote:Just looked at the airbnb facebook page and three people have reported the same issue, emails sent asking people to confirm email address in order to make their listing live. None of them have set up listings.
I am one of those who received the request to confirm my email address and posted on Airbnb's FB page. I couldn't use phone number they gave me since I am not listed with Airbnb so I had to open a Twitter account in order to them send them a direct message. Their response via Twitter DM was first to ask for my email address, which I gave them, and second to say that " we've removed the account at this time. If you wish to open an account with us in the future, you will still be ......"
The sentence was unfinished and so is my concern. I still don't know if someone tried to open an ABB account using my email address or if this was a marketing ploy. I plan to send them another Twitter DM but what are the odds of getting a straight answer? :?
Sunbeam
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Post by Sunbeam »

We forwarded the email to report.phishing@airbnb.com - an email address we found on the airbnb website. We didn't want to send via Twitter to Facebook - preferring to deal directly with their website.
Bunny
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Post by Bunny »

Sunbeam wrote:We forwarded the email to report.phishing@airbnb.com - an email address we found on the airbnb website. We didn't want to send via Twitter to Facebook - preferring to deal directly with their website.
Thanks for this Sunbeam. I was really struggling to work out how to send Airbnb the e-mail via Twitter.
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

Our ABB account was hacked twice this year in quick succession, the second time even after we changed the password. We only managed to stop them the second time by changing our registered email address as well.

From what we have read on other forums, there seem to be other owners who have had their ABB accounts compromised. Don't believe that ABB system is as secure as they make it out to be. They seem to put the blame on owners clicking links in phishing emails or having keyboard loggers on their PCs....
tchn
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Post by tchn »

Thanks. I've just received such an email addressed to a name that is not mine, asking to confirm our email address (which is available on listing sites). I'll use the phishing address.
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