[Travel Scam Alert] Watch Out for These Fake Airbnb Websites!
Author: Trend Micro
This article is from Trend Micro.
It’s June, the first month of summer! Many of you have already started to plan for a wonderful summer vacation. However, while you are busy arranging accommodation for your holidays, scammers are all around you, with a handful of travel scams aiming to lighten your pockets.
This week we’ve detected several fake websites that impersonate Airbnb.com. Have you come across any of them?
A List of Fake Airbnb Websites
Below is a list of fake Airbnb websites. It should be easy to tell a fake site from the legitimate one by looking at its web address — the genuine Airbnb website’s URL should be airbnb.com:
- airbnb007[.]netlify[.]app.
- airbnb[.]de-objekt-748319815[.]de.
- airbnb[.]place-online-search4491911[.]cc.
Here’s how one of the fake Airbnb sites looks – quite similar to the real one.
Fake Airbnb website
What’s the Trick?
Wondering what would happen if you book a night with these fake websites?
Well, first of all, there’s no real house listing here. You’ll pay and get nothing, basically throwing your money into a river. When you are already travelling and finally realize that the booking site is fake, you’ll be hopeless and far away from home.
What’s worse, these fake sites are designed to steal your personal information. When you log in on the site, scammers can record all the log-in credentials you’ve submitted. They can thus use them to commit other cybercrimes such as identity theft! Here’s a screenshot of a fake Airbnb log-in page:
Fake Airbnb log-in page
How to Protect Yourself
- Choose reliable booking platforms. Do your homework and search for reviews and
complaints about the travel website/agency. - Take a closer look at a website’s web address — is it legitimate?
- NEVER click links or attachments from unknown sources. Use Trend Micro Check to
combat scams with ease! (It’s 100% FREE.)
Trend Micro Check is a browser extension for detecting scams, phishing attacks, malware, and
dangerous links — and it’s FREE!
After you’ve pinned Trend Micro Check, it
will block dangerous sites automatically! It’s
available on Safari, Google Chrome, and
Microsoft Edge.
You can also download the Trend Micro
Check mobile app for 24/7 automatic scam
and spam detection and filtering. (Available
for Android and iOS).
Stay safe and enjoy your trip — don’t let scammers ruin the vacation! As ever, if you’ve found
this article an interesting and/or helpful read, please do SHARE with friends and family to help
keep the online community secure and protected.
Source:Pexels.com
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