Sono stato con Airbnb dal 2010 (Wow - 7 anni di viaggi costante) and I love it. I always recommend Airbnb to friends and colleagues. It's just a better way to travel. Airbnb rentals are usually cheaper than a hotel, have way more amenities and help you save money while you travel. I've become an expert at how to pick Airbnb rentals, so I hardly ever have issues now. However, certain cities (Lisbon - I am looking at you) have gotten quite expensive.  So this year, I decided it would be worth it to look at other places for rentals. One of those places was Craigslist. This is where I encountered a scam that was quite sophisticated. It was pretty easy for me to recognize, but this will be a guide so that you too can recognize these types of Airbnb scams and not get tricked. Just to be clear, this is not an Airbnb scam, but a Craigslist scam that takes advantage of those who have not yet used Airbnb. 

How to Recognize Craigslist Airbnb Scams

 

 

 

 

Pricing is too Damn Good

The first tell that the listing we had found on Craigslist was a scam was that it was significantly cheaper than an average listing on Airbnb.  Someone who often travels to a city will have a good idea of what an average monthly and daily price is. However, those who have not are at more risk to fall for a scam. They may have heard that the city was cheap, ridiculously cheap...and could fall for those amazing prices seen on Craigslist. Take a look at the two images above. The average price of an Airbnb monthly rental in Lisbon is $3631. The top three images on the Craigslist screenshot are most likely fakes. Let's look at the first. If you were to click thru, you'd see that the price is listed as €600 ($636 USD). The average nightly price for an Airbnb is $150. That would come out to $1,050 per week, so either at a weekly or monthly pricing, something is fishy here. 

 

 

They Want to Take the Conversation off of Craigslist Immediately

Craigslist has encrypted emails that keep your info secure. If the listing asks you for your email immediately to communicate, they are most likely trying to get Craigslist out of the situation (no proof on Craigslist email servers). When we emailed the listing, we wanted to see what would happen, so we took the convo online. Here are the next tells on these Craigslist Airbnb scams.

 

 

The poster will ask you to vet yourself

Note those tiny little lines "I want to know more about the person who will be living in my apartment". That turns the tables on you where you feel like you have to be good enough for them. It's a very smart move. 

 

 

Craigslist Airbnb Scams Will Tell You You can't see the apartment

Note that the Craigslist poster makes it clear that the apartment cannot be seen. This is suspect. If you can't see the apartment, how do you get the keys. Just another sign that something is definitely off

 

Craigslist Airbnb Scams Will Ask You To Book on Airbnb

This is where things get interesting. This Craigslist vacation rental scammer uses the reputation and validity of Airbnb to jump on its prey. They tell you that you can book through Airbnb. Again, most people have heard of the dashboard, so they are used to this. They will send you a link to the "Airbnb" site with a listing. Again, if you use Airbnb, it's pretty easy to tell the site is fake, but a newbie could easily be fooled. 

 

How to Prevent Being a Victim of a Craigslist Airbnb Scammer

Social Media Searches: In our case, I did a Google Plus, Facebook, and Google search for the scammer's email. Nothing came up. Someone who uses Airbnb as a host will most likely be active on Social Media, so...if you can't find profiles for that email on social, it is quite possibly a scam. Simply put their email on Facebook search & Google . Then check to see if what the message says matches with the information that comes up (if anything does come up). 

 

Google Image Search: Take the images for the listing. Run them through Google Image search. If you see your image come up, click it and compare the information there. We ended up finding a Facebook page for an ACTUAL BNB in Lisboa. We took the liberty of messaging them there and letting them know someone had stolen their images and was using them for a scam.

 

Take a Close Look at the Pictures: A look at the pictures that the scammer provided included one with the name of the BnB the images belonged to. We had already found them through reverse image search, but this confirmed the entire scam.

 

Check URLS: Almost looks legit, right? The URL above is the URL that was sent to me by the scammer. The URL below is the actual Airbnb URL. Let's take a quick look at the sites now. 

 

What does an Airbnb Clone Scam Website Look Like

The video above is a quick summary and shows what an Airbnb Scam website looks like compared to an actual Airbnb site. I hope you find this article helpful.

If you have not traveled with Airbnb yet, it's wonderful. If you have questions about how to travel on Airbnb, mi lasciare un commento, and if you want a credit towards your first Airbnb trip, add me as a friend and use my code here.