A charity worker and her friends were scammed out of £3,000 when she tried to book a posh villa in Ibiza through Airbnb.
Hannah Jones was the victim of a fraud where the perpetrator tricks the customer into making a payment outside of the travel platform.
She told Metro.co.uk that Airbnb had been “absolutely unhelpful” and refused her a refund or compensation despite the property’s initial false listing of 10 bedrooms and outdoor swimming pool being advertised on its site.
The 26-year-old, from Brixton, south London, made the booking on behalf of her group of 10 for a girls’ holiday after the host, ‘Anna’, appeared to verify, with 31 reviews, including glowing recommendations.
She paid for seven nights in July after the scammer emailed her a link to what she now believes was a mirror page of the Airbnb website.
Ms Jones said: ‘The villa was stunning and almost too good to be true, that’s how it turned out.
“I found the listing on Airbnb and in the description it said to contact the host directly for more information on availability.
“I’ve used Airbnb before and it’s completely normal.
“I exchanged emails with the host and they responded with a booking link, which turned out to be a fake page replicating Airbnb’s website.
“It looked exactly the same but it had been recreated, even the links at the bottom were to the Airbnb homepage. There was nothing to make you think there was anything wrong with it. unusual.
The future vacationer became alarmed at not receiving any response from the advertiser after making payment and the pages quickly disappeared.
“I contacted Airbnb within an hour as I was freaking out because I had just sent £3,000 to a scam list,” she said.
“They were absolutely useless. They said they had no memory of my reservation and the original listing had been removed from the Airbnb website. That’s when I realized I had paid through a fake platform.
“When I first told them what happened the guy on the phone laughed and said he was really sorry but there was nothing he could do because I made the payment outside of the platform.
“I tried to say they take no responsibility despite listing a fake property.”
Ms Jones then provided all the evidence to Airbnb’s anti-fraud team, uploading material including screenshots and correspondence with the fraudster.
The listing for a ‘wonderful villa’ near Ibiza Town had positive reviews, with Anna’s profile featuring a photo and describing her as an ID-verified ‘superhost’.
A supposed guest wrote: “Anna’s home is stylish, comfortable and peaceful, making you feel like you own this place.”
Ms Jones told Metro.co.uk that after the anti-fraud team investigated, Airbnb’s response was the same and she was not eligible for a refund or compensation.
“I shared the link before trying to book and no one noticed anything out of the ordinary, which goes to show how convincing the fake listing was,” she said.
“But I feel responsible because after paying £300 each I didn’t notice it was fraud.” It’s stressful and Airbnb has done nothing to help.
In August, another potential vacationer, Lisa Shurkin, was also scammed out of £3,000 when she booked what she thought was a week-long holiday to Ibiza. She was also tricked into making the payment outside of the online marketplace, which had hosted the original fake listing.
Before making the booking, Ms Jones browsed another villa on the accommodation rental website, which also appeared to be a fake.
“There was another villa that also said to contact the host directly and they sent me a link to a Tripadvisor page and then when I went back to Airbnb it had been deleted,” she said. .
“So there are two fake villas on Airbnb telling me they don’t vet their hosts and don’t allow fake properties to be listed.”
Airbnb claims to have “zero tolerance for false or misleading content” and uses “sophisticated technologies” to prevent misuse of its services.
Responding to Ms Jones, a member of the portal’s Trust team said that as the payment is off-site it is not covered by the platform’s policies and “we cannot cover your loss”.
The email continues: “While the emails you received may appear to be official communications from Airbnb, they have not been approved by us.
“When you deal with a host outside of our platform, it makes it easier for them to send you fraudulent information. In fact, we’ll never ask you to pay offsite or via email.
Metro.co.uk has approached Airbnb for further comment.
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