possible scam

[Mary448]

I am a new host and I believe someone is already trying to scam me. One of my first reservations was a guy from (or allegedly from) Lindenwold, New Jersey. I looked for him on Facebook and found someone who appeared to be the guy but was from Utah not NJ.  He ended up canceling. The third reservation I got was another person who's profile also said he was from Lindenwold, NJ as well but actually live in Mn.  (I'm located in Minnesota.) So as you can imagine, this was a bit strange as what are the chances they are both from NJ and I wasn't sure what to do other then do research on the people. I sent messages with probing questions and some were answered and some were not (like why the addresses and name didn't match). I asked them for ID per Airbnb and they said there was no place to upload ID and they asked for my email (which I did not give) then they called me and left a message so I called them back and the woman seemed legit on the phone. So why the hell is Lindenwold NJ popping up? Is there a possible glitch somewhere or is it scammers?! Also wondering if it's safer to use Paypal for payout rather then my bank account. I got a letter from my bank account saying my info had been breached. Wondering if Airbnb is worth using if hackers are getting in!

Anyone have anything similar happen? 

[David126]

Default setting

[Joe151]

It's funny you'd mention coincidental cities. I had two separate bookings occur within 2 days of each other. Both bookings were from people allegedly from Bristow, Oklahoma. My listing is in Pennsylvania, so it generally a little odd to see someone renting from OK... but then to have two people book from the EXACT same speck of a midwest town (4,000 residents) was fascinating to say the least and it made me a little suspicious.

There were other coincidences that I won't go into that made me even more curious. I will say that you'd probably need to be a statistician or a actuary to calculate the odds of these individuals renting my house on separate weeks.

One of the guests has come and gone with no problem. Even though he was allegedly from Oklahoma he told me that he was driving from Florida. The other guest will arrive in a few days.

Honestly, I'm not clear what to think. I'm still a little suspicious. Either the tourist bureau of Lancaster PA is doing a bang-up job attracting visitors from Bristow OK; or, the Airbnb system is whacked; or, there's something a bit more nefarious going on that I don't understand.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mary448 it is already on host voice, you can comment , like etc... maybe one day ABB will change this

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/Address-the-Guest-s-default-hometown-quot-Lindenwold-...