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I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam Run by Fake Hosts on Airbnb (2019)

How easy is it to exploit Airbnb? While searching for my grifter, I found out.

Sure, the house looked a little basic in the photos online, but it was nice enough, especially considering the time crunch—light-filled, spacious, and close to the Blue Line.Now, we were facing our second potential disaster in 30 days, and I couldn’t help but feel slightly suspicious of the man on the phone, who had called me from a number with a Los Angeles area code. “That’s the good news.”The bad news, which went unstated, was that I had unknowingly stumbled into a nationwide web of deception that appeared to span eight cities and nearly 100 property listings—an undetected scam created by some person or organization that had figured out just how easy it is to exploit Airbnb’s poorly written rules in order to collect thousands of dollars through phony listings, fake reviews, and, when necessary, intimidation. “I can see how they can get some people who are trapped into staying in a shitty place.”That’s what happened to Juan David Garrido, a college student from St. Paul, Minnesota, who rented a place from Kris and Becky in Milwaukee this past Fourth of July weekend.Garrido had traveled to the city to attend a musical festival with friends, only to have the hosts cancel on him at the last minute.

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