Or worse! There have been reports of bait-and-switch scams using AirBNB (though it's by no means an AirBNB only thing) where the apartment provider makes contact on the day of travel to let you know that there's been a problem with the lovely apartment you booked (flooded or fire damaged) and they can either refund you or accommodate in a "similar" apartment. If you agree, then they have it recorded in the AirBNB conversation that you're agreeing to it. Of course the replacement apartment is 20km out of town and in a fleapit. It's another variant of the advance fee fraud.
I was scammed via booking.com
- Thread starter Brendan Burgess
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Or worse! There have been reports of bait-and-switch scams using AirBNB (though it's by no means an AirBNB only thing) where the apartment provider makes contact on the day of travel to let you know that there's been a problem with the lovely apartment you booked (flooded or fire damaged) and they can either refund you or accommodate in a "similar" apartment. If you agree, then they have it recorded in the AirBNB conversation that you're agreeing to it. Of course the replacement apartment is 20km out of town and in a fleapit. It's another variant of the advance fee fraud.
That doesn't really prove much?
Brendan Burgess
Founder
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Our European MP , Regina Doherty, is taking up my case...
dublinpeople.com
Doherty calls for EU crackdown on online fraud
Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty has called for the EU to crack down on online fraud
dublinpeople.com
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Brendan Burgess
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So I got the runaround from Booking.com
They kept sending me the same response which, although it was signed with a person's name, I assume it was AI generated. It made no reference to previous emails.
But on Monday, the money arrived back in my account with the wording "VDP - Refund Re FRAU"
I presume that AIB has charged it back to the payment company. Or maybe they have just taken the hit.
If I had paid by Revolut, I would not have got it back.
They kept sending me the same response which, although it was signed with a person's name, I assume it was AI generated. It made no reference to previous emails.
But on Monday, the money arrived back in my account with the wording "VDP - Refund Re FRAU"
I presume that AIB has charged it back to the payment company. Or maybe they have just taken the hit.
If I had paid by Revolut, I would not have got it back.
So "hotel" was just a smokescreen for the real service being purchased?
