Airbnb scams: criminal activity on big tech platforms

Big tech sharing economy platforms like Airbnb and Uber are marketed as trustworthy, but a new book by a South African media scholar argues that they are highly vulnerable to scammers who spread delusive speech (a form of disinformation, designed to deceive by criminal intent).

Julie Reid draws from first-hand accounts and over 600 cases from around the world of victims lured into scams or physical danger by fake Airbnb reviews and listings, providing a detailed case study. We asked her five questions about her book.

HOW DO THE SCAMS WORK?

Airbnb is the world’s largest accommodation-sharing platform. It connects property owners who want to rent out their homes with travelers looking for alternatives to traditional hotels. The company recently expanded its offering and now facilitates the booking of other services like personal trainers or caterers along with accommodation rentals.

Airbnb scams happen in several ways. The most obvious is the phantom listing scam. The scammer constructs a fake but attractive listing on Airbnb and accepts payments from unsuspecting guests. It’s only when guests arrive at the address that they discover the property doesn’t exist. Scammers have also learned to navigate around Airbnb’s review system. Fake positive reviews are produced by scam host networks, making them appear to be authentic.

Bait and switch scams are also common. Here the scam “host” contacts the guest on check-in day claiming the reserved property is suddenly unavailable. They offer alternative accommodation, which the guest later discovers is not as good as the original property they’ve paid for (which is often fictional). The guest pays for a premium rental but is forced to stay in a property that might be unsafe, unclean, or missing amenities.

Scam hosts use misleading, plagiarized, or artificial intelligence (AI)-generated property images and fake descriptions along with fake personal profiles and aliases.

Delusive tactics also redirect guests away from the secure Airbnb payment portal to alternative payment methods. The scammer disappears with the money.

But the danger isn’t limited to financial crimes. The platform’s business model is premised on staying in a stranger’s private property, which can put guests’ personal safety at risk.

Criminal hosts can lure targets into dangerous environments. Once checked in, guests are isolated from public view, housed in a property to which the host has access.

I’ve assessed multiple cases where Airbnb guests were assaulted, robbed with no signs of forced entry, raped, murdered, made victims of sexploitation, extortion or human trafficking, or held hostage.

HOW DOES THE DISINFORMATION WORK?

I consider delusive speech a subset of disinformation because it presents intentionally misleading content at scale. But it differs from disinformation in its intentions. It isn’t done to promote a particular cause or gain ideological, military, or political advantage. Delusive speech is motivated purely by criminal intent or nefarious financial gain.

Delusive speech works by hiding in plain sight on platforms we think we can trust, like Airbnb, Booking.com, Uber, and others. Often, it’s indistinguishable from honest and genuine content. When users browse Airbnb listings for holiday accommodation, they’re presented with numerous options. A fake property listing looks, sounds, and feels exactly the same as a genuine one.

This happens on a platform that has built its brand narrative around the concept of trust. Scammers exploit these digital contexts of pre-established trust. When users log on to popular e-commerce or sharing economy platforms, they’re already primed to pay for something. It becomes relatively easy for scammers to delude targets into parting with their money.

WHAT CAN AIRBNB DO ABOUT IT?

Airbnb already has several trust and safety mechanisms in place. They include rapid response teams, an expert Trust and Safety Advisory Coalition and travel insurance for guests. The company claims to be trying to stop fake listings with machine learning technology.

Sadly, none of these mechanisms work perfectly. While Airbnb promises to verify properties and host identities, my analysis exposes flaws in these systems. Scammers easily bypass verification tiers through aliases, forged documents and AI-generated material. Airbnb has admitted it needs to address the failures of its verification processes.

My analysis uncovered how scammed guests are routinely denied the opportunity to post reviews of problematic rentals. Opaque terms of service and content policies allow Airbnb customer service agents and executives to justify censoring negative but honest guest reviews.

This means dangerous and fraudulent activity goes publicly unreported and unreviewed, leaving future guests vulnerable. I argue that Airbnb’s review curation mechanisms should be revamped according to internationally recognized human rights frameworks that protect freedom of speech. This would allow for more honest accounts of guest experiences and create a safer online environment.

Perhaps the most common complaint I encountered was that Airbnb doesn’t remove offending listings from its platform, even after a scammed guest provides evidence that the listing was posted by a fraudster. Airbnb must develop an urgent protocol for swiftly removing offending listings when discovered, to protect future guests from falling victim to the same scam trap.

WHAT CAN USERS DO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES?

Travelers can protect themselves by being extra cautious. Ask around. Seek recommendations from people you know and trust, and who can verify that the property you are booking actually exists and that the host is trustworthy.

If that isn’t an option, consider an established hotel instead, but book directly with the hotel and not via third party sites like Booking.com where listings can easily be faked. Check on Google Street View to make sure the property is where it claims to be.

Either way, have a Plan B in case things go wrong. Prepare ahead of your trip by deciding what you will do if you find yourself in an unsafe situation. And always, always, buy travel insurance.

IS IT PART OF A BIGGER PROBLEM?

I assessed several digitally initiated scam categories in this book. While my main case study focused on Airbnb, the problem of delusive speech online isn’t unique to this platform. Delusive speech is now carried by all major tech platforms integral to everyday life. In the book, I also highlight how scammers operate in every corner of the internet, including dating apps like Grindr, Tinder and Hinge; ride-sharing services like Uber, Lyft, and Bolt; travel sites like Booking.com and Hotels.com; and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, among others.

I hope that these examples will boost awareness of the risks of using these apps and sites.

Julie Reid is a professor at the University of South Africa.

Source: Business World

Should Airbnbs Be Banned In Tourist Destinations

The temptation to ban short-term rentals is strong. But cities would do better to step up regulation.

The Predicament

Talk to any resident of a world city popular with visitors, and two complaints inevitably come up: Rents are too high, and there are too many tourists.

It’s tempting (and, data suggest, not unjustified) to place some of the blame for these woes on Airbnb Inc., Vrbo and other websites that facilitate short-term rentals. Critics accuse them of reducing the supply of available homes and saturating popular neighborhoods with wild partygoers. Shops catering to these visitors end up elbowing out other smaller businesses, making daily life even harder for locals.

In response, many cities have already introduced restrictions on short-term rentals, with some moving toward total bans. Barcelona requires property owners to apply for a tourist license for rentals of fewer than 31 days. Earlier this year, authorities there announced they would stop issuing licenses and not renew existing ones until after November 2028. Others are following suit: In September, residents in Budapest’s sixth district narrowly voted in favor of a total ban that would take effect in 2026.

But bans also penalize city residents and visitors, including short-stay hosts conscientiously trying to follow rules and be good neighbors and guests who mind their manners. Is there a compromise that enshrines the ben­efits of short-term stays without driving up costs and frustrations for year-round residents?

The Case For

Because renting out homes by the day is often more profitable than by the month, Airbnb and its ilk are an irresistible draw for landlords. Critics say the proliferation of short-stay listings leaves prospective tenants chasing a dwindling number of long-term rentals, jacking up prices and pushing out those who can no longer afford them.

A 2018 study by New York City’s comptroller found that whenever the number of short-stay listings in a given area increased 1%, average rents in that neighborhood rose 1.6%. The spread of Airbnb and competitors, the study said, was responsible for 9.2% of all annual NYC rent increases from 2009 to 2016.

The Booming Short-Stay Market

To limit this impact, cities ­including New York have placed restrictions on short-term stays. But enforcement is a challenge. A 2017 study of publicly available agreements found that Airbnb and other platforms rarely provided exact addresses for dwellings to cities seeking to monitor locations. Even in cases where rule-­breaking can be proven, hosts often go unpunished. According to a 2022 study, the city of Los Angeles fined or sent warning letters to only a third of the illegal listings detectable within the city that year.

City governments might be more tolerant of short-term rentals if there were a clear economic case. But studies cited by the Economic Policy Institute found they jeopardize revenue flowing into municipal coffers because the recording and implementing of tax obligations from short-stay hosts are less comprehensive than for hotels, partly because some local agreements cede responsibility in this area to the short-stay platforms themselves.

There are also concerns that short-term rentals leave travelers more exposed to scams and other types of harm, compared with hotel stays. Then there’s the nuisance factor: Barcelona’s Airbnb ban comes after widespread public protest in the city against antisocial behavior from tourists, notably late-night noise from tenants of short-stay lettings. Add it all up, and it’s no surprise that many city leaders are contemplating wholesale bans, rather than more stringent regulations.

The Case Against

Airbnb and its competitors may be unfairly taking heat for housing crises that are largely not of their own making. When a country such as the UK would need to build another city the size of London to satisfy its current housing needs, it’s clearly insufficient home-building, rather than tourism trends, that’s to blame. There are also tentative signs that curbs on short-term stays may not be having the desired effect on easing long-term rental costs—and not just because of a lack of enforcement. In September 2023, New York City banned the renting of entire units for fewer than 30 days. (Spare rooms within homes permanently occupied by hosts were exempted from the rule.) One year on, many apartments previously offered for short stays have simply shifted to medium-length stays of more than 30 days, a market that’s even less regulated, while the modest rent decreases observed since then have been attributed to other factors.

“As we have seen in New York City, short-term rental bans do not alleviate housing challenges,” Theo Yedinsky, Airbnb’s vice president for public policy, said in a statement, “only benefitting large hotel chains that rapidly increase their rates. Airbnb has always welcomed reasonable regulations that balance the needs of communities with the ability of residents to earn additional income.”

It’s also important to note that not all Airbnb listings are suitable, or even viable, for full-time rental. Beach or winter sports resorts, for example, commonly have apartment buildings that were always intended as seasonal housing. Additionally, even if most vacation apartments are run by hosts with multiple listings, comprehensive bans penalize ­single-listing hosts who rely on the platforms to supplement their income.

The Common Ground

Although no city appears to have cracked the code on controlling short-term stays, most could do a better job of regulating them. Making sure hosts register their dwellings through a licensing system can make for a safer service, where tax rev­enue is also easier to collect.

Some city authorities say that for full enforcement of existing rules, they would need access to a more robust database that allows cities to click on a short-stay listing, trace it to a specific address and owner, then see how much it has been occupied across all platforms.

Airbnb has been working more closely with cities to address these concerns, moving in the direction of greater transparency. For instance, the company introduced the Airbnb City Portal in 2020, which makes it easier to check listings against licenses.

Airbnb is also involved in projects such as the Airbnb Housing Council that promote affordable housing in urban communities. “We have successfully worked with governments around the world to enforce proportionate local STR regulations,” Yedinsky said in his statement, “and believe cities should address the needs of their individual neighborhoods prescriptively as a more effective way to regulate.”

There are city leaders who say that Airbnb has been a benefit and that current restrictions are working. Rui Moreira, mayor of Porto, Portugal’s second-­biggest city and a popular tourist destination, says recent constraints placed on the number of Airbnbs permitted in its most popular neighborhoods have proved effective, encouraging hosted apartments to spread out from the city core. That’s helped spur the economic revival of run-down areas that might otherwise struggle to find funding, he says.

Source: Bloomberg

Airbnb Hosts Look To Drop the ‘Airbnb'

This April, more than 600 landlords, real estate agents and small-property managers traveled to a swanky resort in San Diego to get advice from Jesse Vasquez. A former salesperson at a hospice- care company, Vasquez now manages more than a dozen properties, in addition to his side hustle coaching his peers. “We don’t have to be relying on Airbnb,” Vasquez told his audience. “Don’t allow these big companies to supply your clients. Build your own house on your own freakin’ land.”

Airbnb, the world’s biggest short-term rental platform, is thriving—it added more than a million active listings in 2023 while posting a record profit. Its hosts, at least those in the US, not so much. Through May of this year, earnings for US hosts had declined in 22 of the past 28 months, according to analytics firm AirDNA. Hosts blame oversupply, regulatory changes and Airbnb Inc.’s own policies. Some, like those at Vasquez’s event, think the solution is to cut out Airbnb altogether.

In part, this is what always happens when people rely on internet platforms to make a living. It’s akin to Uber drivers asking passengers to call them directly the next time they need a ride, or YouTube influencers and TikTok celebrities cutting side deals with brands to secure advertising income they won’t have to split with the platforms. Who likes a middleman?

On Airbnb, there’s a specific opportunity in the shift to mid-term rentals—stays of longer than 30 days but shorter than the leases people sign for their primary apartments. Attracting enough new people to rent an apartment once or twice a week essentially requires a service like Airbnb. If you’re only looking for a few renters a year, it becomes more reasonable to find them yourself.

In practice, though, this strategy is often a way to supplement Airbnb income rather than replace it entirely. Vivian Yip, an Austin-based host who came to Vasquez’s conference, began the shift several years ago and has done well enough to quit her day job. Her property management company now includes more than 20 homes. Still, she relies on Airbnb for half of her bookings. “I’m not strong enough to replace Airbnb,” she says.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky has downplayed the importance of individual hosts circumventing Airbnb’s services. In an email, a spokesperson added that the company offers benefits that are hard to replicate, including background checks, payment processing and insurance. “When bookings and communication move off our platform, we are no longer able to ensure hosts and guests are covered by our extensive built-in protections and support,” they wrote.

Airbnb wants to hold on to those hosts who are focused on longer stays, a group that’s bigger than it was before the pandemic. It’s tailoring its platform to appeal to them. Last summer, for instance, it reduced service fees for stays of more than three months.

For now, the mid-term segment is dominated by large companies such as Anyplace, Blueground and June Homes, but smaller players are also setting up their own booking websites, drawing renters in with lower prices for properties also listed on Airbnb or Vrbo.

For some hosts, the trick is not to find renters one by one but to form relationships with institutions that will bring in regular business. These can be companies helping their employees relocate, or insurers and government agencies in search of temporary housing for displaced families or contract workers.

The interest in direct bookings creates an opportunity for businesses such as Furnished Finder LLC, which charges $100 annually for listings rather than taking a commission. Interest in the site spiked last fall when New York City effectively banned short-term apartment rentals, and in October the platform added more homes than in any month of its 10-year history, according to CEO Jeff Hurst.

Today, Furnished Finder has 300,000 listings in the US. It’s a far cry from Airbnb’s 7.7 million globally, but the company is profitable and plans to hire more engineers and product managers, says Hurst, who was hired in late 2023, one of a wave of former Vrbo employees who’ve migrated to the company.

The hunger to develop alternate strategies to find tenants is a big reason people were willing to pay the $897 Vasquez charged for his conference. He talks up the benefits of rental hosts referring potential clients to one another. “The mid-term space is all about connections,” he says.

Vasquez rented out his first mid-term property to a travel nurse in 2015, then built up his portfolio by making a housing deal with his local hospital in Modesto, California, and managing other people’s rentals. He now brings in more than $80,000 a month in profit.

His social media following exploded after he appeared on a real estate investing podcast last year. The increasing prominence provided a significant boost for what has become an even bigger source of income for Vasquez than rental housing: giving other people advice about rental housing.

After the podcast episode, Vasquez got more than 300 new students for his yearlong mentorship program, which costs $6,500. He says his online mentorship program turned a $1.3 million profit last year. The conference attracted 60 more sign-ups, adding to the 450 people who’ve taken the course. Profit is once again projected to top $1 million. “It’s so crazy to feel like this movement is happening,” he says, “and I get to be a catalyst.” 

Source: Bloomberg Business Week