Thoughts on these Airbnb messages

[Tyler Sherman]

hey squad - Curious if anyone knows why I keep getting messages like this on Airbnb. Seems scammy just not sure what they are getting out of it. Thoughts?

[Caleb Brown]

Looks like he might be foreign so using Google translate? To me he is asking for you to do a walk through video of it before he books it. Seems like it could be a hassle. If you had enough bookings I wouldn't go too far down the rabbit hole if the person isn't super serious. 

[Tyler Sherman]

Quote from @Caleb Brown:

Looks like he might be foreign so using Google translate? To me he is asking for you to do a walk through video of it before he books it. Seems like it could be a hassle. If you had enough bookings I wouldn't go too far down the rabbit hole if the person isn't super serious. 

 Thanks, Caleb. It’s weird though because I received multiple similar messages from other foreign users.

[Caleb Brown]

Quote from @Tyler Sherman:

Quote from @Caleb Brown:

Looks like he might be foreign so using Google translate? To me he is asking for you to do a walk through video of it before he books it. Seems like it could be a hassle. If you had enough bookings I wouldn't go too far down the rabbit hole if the person isn't super serious. 

 Thanks, Caleb. It’s weird though because I received multiple similar messages from other foreign users.

 Ah then I would probably move on. Seems too fishy

[Ian Tyndall]

I wouldn’t do it. It is easy to case a house from Zillow. Especially using full house tours. You can see the points of entry, window angles and camera locations. 
see the news link on this topic recently:

https://abc7.com/post/blurring-homes-google-maps-thieves-sea...

[Patricia Andriolo-Bull]

I have had legitimate folks ask to see my place in person for a 5 week rental and I did a FaceTime tour with another that was out of town.  Each was paying me more than $18K for their stay so it sounds reasonable that they would want to confirm it is real and I didn't mind.  I just told them they would have to wait until after a guest left.  I do have professional videos and a footprint map but I do believe people may still believe those are stolen digital videos.  All that said, if you are getting many of them and all seem foreign sounds fishy and maybe a scam.

[Ray Hage]

Man that set off some major alarms in my brain. I would report them to AirBnB but I assume nothing will come of it

[Carolyn Fuller]

For whatever it is worth, we rent our STR by the month during the non-tourist season and we have a walk-through video on YouTube. We don't publish the address to our unit and, at no time, is the address available in the video. Our month long tenants really appreciate having a walkthrough video available, especially because a significant percentage of our longer term tenants are international.

[Lauren Kormylo]

Are you a new host?  You'll get a lot of these at first because scammers prey on newbies.  They ask about staying long term, hoping the thought of all that money will entice you to interact with them and leave your defenses down.  They can use your video to create a fake listing and scam other guests out of money.  After you've got a lot of time invested in them, they will ask to communicate off platform, and say they're having their employer send you a check.  The check will be for more than the amount, they'll say there was a mistake and ask you to refund the difference.  Weeks later, you'll find the original check was no good, and you'll be out the money you sent them.  

[Michael Baum]

I have never had that kind of contact @Tyler Sherman, but it does seem fishy to me.

Usually we get the "our company is going to pay for our vacation" types of scams.

Having said that, does anyone think it would be a problem to provide that walk through? I guess they could be seeing if you have anything worth stealing, but it could be just a request to see how the house flows etc.

[Tyler Sherman]

Quote from @Lauren Kormylo:

Are you a new host?  You'll get a lot of these at first because scammers prey on newbies.  They ask about staying long term, hoping the thought of all that money will entice you to interact with them and leave your defenses down.  They can use your video to create a fake listing and scam other guests out of money.  After you've got a lot of time invested in them, they will ask to communicate off platform, and say they're having their employer send you a check.  The check will be for more than the amount, they'll say there was a mistake and ask you to refund the difference.  Weeks later, you'll find the original check was no good, and you'll be out the money you sent them.  

This sounds right. Thank you for the input

[Matt Devincenzo]

I got a couple of these on my furnished monthly rental. The issue is you can't share the video on platform, so they'll send an outside contact to you and want to connect there. I assume the scam could be when you go off platform and then they can try to get you to do something to send funds or compromise your password.

[Kwame Koom-Dadzie]

i think its fishy, I got one from a Chinese  lady , & stated all that i can provide is on the airbnb platform , they never came back again , i think this confirms its fishy, very similiar language  , dont send anything  

[Nathan M kiefer]

It's a scam, have received same message 

[Cameron Green]

It's definitely a scam. I've received similar messages on my Airbnb in Cleveland, and they usually try to pull some kind of trick—whether it's asking for personal information or trying to get you off the Airbnb platform for payments. If you’re ever in doubt, you can ask for more information from the guest through Airbnb’s messaging platform, but never take the conversation off-platform.

If you were doing a longer rental (like 30+ days), you'd want to have an off-market rental lease in place, but for anything on Airbnb, it's best to keep everything within their system for your own protection. Stay cautious, and flag any suspicious messages to Airbnb!

[Andrew Steffens]

Definitely feels a little scammy - but it is actually impossible to get them a video without breaking Airbnb TOS.  Prior to booking you cannot share any media files.  In order to send them the video you would need to get their email or phone and to solicit either is against Airbnb rules.

[James Wan]

Definitely a scam. I get these all the time for my STR and MTR usually looking for extended 30+ day stays. The contact is usually brand new to ABB, have no reviews, and the message is likely translated. But the most common giveaway is that they ask strange questions inquiring about your home and will eventually want you to take it off platform, ie. Whatsapp, and once that happens their message is flagged by ABB and you can report them.