Phone call scam?

[Julia-And-Santo0]

I got a booking request from a guest from Trinidad & Tobago, who told me he was coming to Norway for skydiving with his friends from USA. He was arriving a few days before his friends and wanted to explore the city. He sent the arrival date, flight number and his phone number in airbnb message. I accepted the request without any suspicious thoughts. Then he told me he would like to ask some questions but wanted to call instead. 

After a few hours he cancelled the reservation and apologized for changing his planes. Then I got a phone call from a number in Trinidad and Tobago. I thought it was s bit strange because he cancelled the reservation, so I didn’t answer the call. The guy then told me in airbnb message that he was calling because he wanted to rebook again and was apologizing. I understood something was wrong and told him he was welcome to rebook but first had to verificate his ID in airbnb. He told me there was a problem with ID verification and since then I didn’t hear anything from him. 

Now I understand it was a phone call scam brought up to the new level. Watch out hosts!

[Linda108]

@Julia-And-Santo0  I do not understand the "scam" aspect of this communication.  What did the potential guest get?  Are you concerned about security?  Help me understand.  Thank you.

[Julia-And-Santo0]

He was a fake guest and booked our place only to get the phone number. To earn money when he calls you and you answer the call

[Ana1136]

@Julia-And-Santo0 how can someone earn money by calling people? I am sure there are easier ways of finding peoples phones than making a reservation, paying for it and canceling it by loosing the Airbnb fee. It is a very expencive way to find some random phone number. He might have made a mistake and wanted to rebook but wanted to call just to avoid paying another Airbnb fee. I can't see a scam here, I don't know any job that pays just for calling people and have them pick up the phone.

[Julia-And-Santo0]

I’m sure it was a scam. Just google phone call scams and you will get dozens of examples 

[Ana1136]

@Julia-And-Santo0 yes i've googled those before but I am just saying that this is an expensive way of finding people phones where there are programs that will sort out thousans of phone numbers that are online in seconds, it is scary I know but if your phone number is online there are a lot of cheaper, easier and faster ways of getting it instead of booking and than canceling time and time again. And I am sure that king of guest who repeteadly does that will be removed from the platform. 

[Julia-And-Santo0]

It’s not expensive because he got all his money refunded (we have a flexible cancellation policy).  It’s your right to not believe, I wrote it to warn people who can experience the same situation. And off course I reported his profile 

[Ana1136]

@Julia-And-Santo0 you refunded him but he loses the 5%-15% fee guests pay to Airbnb every time they book. And he looses money for every cancelation, that is why it is expensive.

[Susan151]

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@Ana1136 wrote:

@Julia-And-Santo0 you refunded him but he loses the 5%-15% fee guests pay to Airbnb every time they book. And he looses money for every cancelation, that is why it is expensive.

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I believe with the new 48 hour grace period, the guests do not pay an AirBNB fee. [I could be wrong on this, but I thought that was part of the marketing.]

[Ana1136]

@Susan151 they can only get it refunded 3 times per year only up to 48 hours after booking and if he does this just to get phone numbers it is very expensive that is why I don't think that is the case. And again, you can just install a program on your pc and put any URL in the search field and it will extract all phone numbers and e mail adresses, I don't think it is legal but I have read about it and I know people use it so a scammer would know better than to loose money and time on Airbnb reservations.

[Branka-and-Silvia0 · Accepted solution]

Wild guess... he booked to get your phone number and exact address, then cancelled his booking and get refunded, then called you to make a reservation outside Airbnb and save on service fee.

[Ned-And-Laura0]

I agree with @Branka-and-Silvia0 sounds like he was scamming airbnb, not the host.  Or he was trying to keep his spouse/girlfriend/boss from knowing where was was going. Not sure why having your phone number and listing info would help this person to scam the host unless they wanted to pay with some sort of wire transfer or write a check for $1000 more then the amount due so you could pay them back the difference, but those types of scams aren't that common since most everybody is onto them.  So he was probably trying to saves the airbnb fees.

[Yulianna0]

Well, i had the same. Booking from Morocco, cancellation. In couple of days I got a phone call from uncnown number. I didn’t answer, but checked the number and found that it is Morocco. No clue what it is for. To save Airbnb fees? Don’t like smart people. No way. 

[Sandra126]

I pick up my phone, every single time it rings. Even the landline where a frustrating majority of calls are from call centres  selling solar panels or telecommunications. But I don't know that until I answer. Running accommodation I do not screen calls. But when I ring anyone these days, I am lucky if anyone picks up. This will be why. They will stare suspiciously at the screen, wondering who I can be, and decide to ignore.

[Sandra126]

In fact, I have rung guests when they have been late, and they have not answered. On arrival I say ''I rang to see if you were lost'' and they say ''oh was that you? We didn't know who it was.'' BUT THEY DIDN"T PICK UP. Even when a guess might be it was their host.