Heads Up, Hosts! See Any Strange Searches On Your Account?

[Rebecca181]

So this afternoon I received an Airbnb app notification on my phone inviting me to continue my search for places to stay in Dunwoody, Georgia.

Here's the problem: I was not searching for places in Dunwoody, Georgia.

I checked all my security settings (all good) and called Airbnb C/S. While on the phone with a C/S rep, I suddenly could not access my account - I got the old 'Sorry, something went wrong' message. My initial thought was perhaps, like David in Colorado and other erstwhile Super Hosts before me, I was being 'removed' from the platform without explanation. The C/S/ rep couldn't see anything to indicate searches were being done on my account, but advised me to change my password after he reset it for me (which I did), and then I was (mercifully) able to log back into my account. And yet, when I went to https://airbnb.com, lo and behold, there, quite obviously, was my supposed search for Dunwoody, Georgia (see photo, below). How did the C/S/ rep miss this?! 

I don't keep any payment options loaded into my account so the account compromiser wouldn't have gotten very far. I DID have my Facebook linked up to Airbnb and I do wonder if the token was accessed via the security breach Facebook had recently (affecting 90 million or so people now, reportedly). I disconnected the two after I found out about the possible token breach. Or, perhaps it was just another 'computer glitch', or "bug" - Which was the C/S rep's hopeful assessment of the matter.

So, you all might want to go to Airbnb.com while you are logged in to see if any searches are being done via your account. Searches not initiated by you. 

How the C/S rep missed this, I'll never know, it's plain as day to me (screenshot here): 

Who used my account to search for places in Dunwoody?

[Susan151]

Any chance that you viewed an AirBNB host profile while reading through this forum? I often see odd searches when do this, and then I have to remember where a host is located.

[Lizzie]

That's a good suggestion @Susan151. Could this be possible @Rebecca181? 

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181  As @Susan151 said, that happens to me as well sometimes if I check out a host's profile and look at their listing through that- I haven't done a search for a specific area at all. But it seems to happen randomly.

[Sandra126]

I get messages sent saying things like: Use your 132 credit for your upcoming trip to Detroit (or wherever). I am not planning a trip to Detroit, but might have looked up a host.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Rebecca181

I was actually making a few minor updates to my own listing and then noticed a few new "similar listings" showing up so I  checked them out........ever since I've been getting random abb alerts IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to hurry and book my stay in my own neighborhood. 

I think the ABB site is becoming more and more "opposite of smart". Sigh~

[Sarah977]

@Jessica-and-Henry0   Haha, I get those alerts too, to stay in my own little town. All my Airbnb notifications come through at about 3AM. (So I'm in the habit of turning my phone ringer off at night) Which is a drag when someone in my same time zone has sent a booking request at 9PM. I can't figure out why there's a 6 hour time lag from when the guest sends the message and I get the notification????? Shouldn't this all just be automated and instant? So then, of course, I don't have the supposed 24 hr window to respond, since I'm not going to get up at 3AM and reply to the guest who is also sound asleep. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Sarah977

The time delay in notifications and messages!!!!! So this is not just me!!!! Henry and I have been telling confirmed guests to send us txts or to PM us thru whatsapp or kakao talk on the day of check-in because of this time delay in messages. 

We once got a message arrive several hrs late (that our guest was at the airport getting on the subway) and almost missed picking her up from our apartment complex main gate. We also had instances where our guest was out shopping/sightseeing and they asked us a simple  question in the evening (was at a resturant trying to order and asked for suggestions) but we got it more than 5hrs later, at night when the guest was back home! After this type of thing happened a couple times, we decided we can't risk NOT getting messages from guests immediately so we use other chat apps for daily communication and just copy+paste some of the important stuff onto the ABB messenger for evidence. Of course, we explain to our guest why we need to use other chat apps and why we need to copy+paste stuff on the ABB messenger - most of our guests completely agree with us that this is better and don't mind at all. 

[Rebecca181]

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I don't recall looking at host profiles, but I agree that could be a good explanation. What I don't understand is why, just after this notification, my account suddenly went haywire and I was unable to access it. Just the 'Sorry, something went wrong' message and an old (retired) profile photo of me that I haven't used in a couple of months. And prior to this, an error message on my payment method page. I was completely locked out of my account, and the C/S rep had to get me back in. Never had this happen before. Timing was odd, given it all went ka-plooey right after I received the notification about my phantom Dunwoody, GA search... @Jessica-and-Henry0@Sarah977@Sandra126 @Lizzie @Susan151

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181   So your case does sound different than just getting an alert from looking at a profile, since all this other haywire stuff happened for you at the same time. Thanks for the heads-up- I always want to know to be cautious, check my log-in, log-outs,etc. when hosts report possible glitches or security breaches. Honestly, it seems like the entire software programming for Airbnb should be thrown in the garbage and rebuilt from the bottom up by competent, experienced programmers. There's a new glitch every week and the old glitches take weeks or months to fix or never get fixed at all. 

[Victoria567]

Hi@Rebecca

Last night and this morning I have noticed extra payments for ridiculously low sums of cash, such as 2 pence or 4 pence,  coming in as payments from some previous guests who stayed over this season.

This is the equivalent of a couple of US cents or Eurocents.

I will get in touch with AirBnB later to see what is going on here.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Victoria567, 

Just to check about this these couple of pence you are receiving. I wonder did you receive any email notification or anything like that regarding what this might be? 

[Also, on a seperate note, regarding the @ mention here in the CC, if you are using destop, you can add the @ mention by using the arrow keys on your keypad and pressing enter – this should be fixed soon :)]

[Victoria567]

Hi@Lizzie

NO notification at all regarding what these couple of pence are about.

I have received a private message on my profile from a person called Audrey saying the security code sent by air bnb was not working.

I have NOT fully opened Audrey’s email as I am concerned that it may be a method to hack my air bnb account and air bnb payment account as yiu can’t be too careful about identity theft here in the U.K.

So I have not responded to Audrey on my private inbox messages under my air bnb profile.

[Helen427]

@@Rebecca@Victoria@Jessica&Henry@Sarah@Lizzie@Sandra@Susan and others I personally don't use Facebook, or have a Facebook account but do read publically available ones and have also been hit by the gremlins who hacked Facebook.

Airbnb, Tinder and others who may have links through Facebook were to the best of my knowledge impacted by the hack - you may like to look up the news stories related to it.

It's very likely you may have been hacked.

That said worldwide the IT sector needs a clean out of bunnies who are not v up to standards.

Some countries our data goes through don't even have Privacy legislation that a reasonable person would expect.

[Victoria567]

Hi@Helen

Thats what’s so weird.

I don’t have a Facebook account or a google mail either, I just can’t figure it out.

Ive had difficulty logging into my account several times, during my recent holiday abroad , I just wonder if someone is trying to hack my account?