Airbnb insists its systems were not hacked
Airbnb has responded to growing concern from customers fearing the home sharing platform’s customer data security has been compromised.
Airbnb says this has not happened but acknowledged a number of customers have been scammed with fake bookings which have captured payments from them without their knowledge.
In some cases users had payments taken from their bank or Paypal accounts for non-refundable bookings made for fake listings.
The listings were then deleted.
The company has investigated and says some users’ accounts were accessed with the correct account login that must have been ‘compromised elsewhere’.
While phishing scams and fake Airbnb listings are not uncommon, there seems to be a high number of similar instances in a short space of time which had led to many suspecting the platform itself has been hacked in some way.
Airbnb told USA TODAY: "These are isolated incidents and at no point was the Airbnb platform compromised.
"We have robust systems in place to protect users’ accounts and our team of trust and safety experts work hard to constantly strengthen our defenses."
The company is working with known scamming victims and some report Airbnb has refunded them.
Airbnb has sent emails to users with advice about how to spot suspicious activity, such as steering well clear of unauthorised sites with similar names and never click a link or enter personal information if they don’t come from a recognised @airbnb.com email address.
Any requests to wire money, provide credit card information or pay a host directly are all red flags, it says.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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