While they are rare, scammers pop up from time to time on all booking platforms like Vrbo and Airbnb. If you receive a booking inquiry and suspect it to be a scam, proceed with caution and trust your gut! Here are tips to spot and report scams.
Signs of Fraudulent Guest Behavior:
- Messages contain characters, symbols, poor spelling spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.
- Offers to 'overpay' or pay extra, especially offline by check
- Requests that you communicate by email or phone or even pay offsite.
- Wants to pay by certified check, cashier's check, or unsecured wire transfer.
- Sends an inquiry with no comments/questions or content that has nothing to do with your home.
- Asks for help for an ailing family member or claims their company will contact you later.
Best Practices to Protect Yourself:
- Never accept more than the amount due, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.
- Never send refunds for any "overpayments"
- Only accept payments online through the platform
- If an inquiry is not legitimate, you can mark it as spam or contact the platform to report the user
- Contact us if you suspect you are being scammed.