Two men are facing fraud charges for over 10,000 misleading listings on rental sites like Airbnb and VRBO. They used properties from all over the country to double book and then cancel on people who were not the highest bidder.
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#nbcnews #airbnb #scam
Miami is full of scammers! I’m not joking it’s infested with rotten people doing shady business. I’m glad this women exposed these people.
Airbnbust.
They messed with the wrong victim
I’ve never been a fan or airbnb. They’re also notorious for having hidden cameras in their rooms and bathrooms.
I tried using AirBnB once and their fees and charges were too much for both parties, the renter and the property owner. It was too ridiculous simply for a website similar to a Craigslists listing with a much better facelift and marketing image. This was a few years ago and I haven’t bothered trying to use it again. A traditional hotel booked through Costco or Priceline has been serving my needs so far.
Oh Yeah, I remember him making racist comments about his ‘black tenants’. Hope he rots in jail for a long time.
Hold On..Sooo let me get this straight…Black people are just crying victim right? So these EAST INDIANS doesn’t get blamed at all right? As long as the Victims are black right?
They need to go to jail.
Big load of money is over lol …
I got banned from Air BnB for no reason even before ever even used it once I booked and a week later I got a notification I was banned and I tried to appeal it but no word back. I paid and everything but they canceled me a week before my trip had to pay twice as much for a last minute hotel I don’t understand why but something like that I never tried again I hate Air BNB
Just had the same experience with the host “Frontdesk” on AirBnB this past week
I swear if these guys were Blk there’d be so much racism in the comments
Of course they used white-sounding names and also discriminated against Black clients. Racism at its best. And no wonder – blatant frauds like this wouldn’t care about how they treat other human beings. I hope they learn their lesson.
Oh look… An indian guy
They look like telemarketers.
“Identified as black” lol..the woke world we live in now days.
Never ever ger an airbnb lol always a hotel
1:26 online auto auctions are doing the same thing. The owners also bid to drive the price and if it doesn’t get to where they want they place the high bid and relist the vehicle.
Interesting. Any nut stains on the pillows???
Please tell me they go to jail for this.
Why wasn’t the other guy pictured? I assumed they’ve been arrested and booked.
Airbnb would lose a lot of money if they installed an infrastructure to regulate and monitor their rentals to ensure safety for renters and neighbors of the rental.
The house next door to mine, kept renting out to on Fridays and Saturdays to people throwing underground night clubs. fast forward 6 months later, tens of complaints from the entire city block, nothing! Then one night a gun fight broke out, over 200 AK-47 rounds on the street. Funny thing is a 6 months later that house listed on Airbnb.
bro who took that picture of her with them dry as lips omg girl lick your lips or something
don’t trust Airbnb…
congratulations on the lady she did very good work ~!
This happened to me. The host told me that the AC didn’t work and I would have to stay at a different property.
It was a nice property though. I had no issues.
AirBnB is at fault here, they let these people onto their platform and do the bare min to make sure things are running correctly. Sue the company and put the owners in jail!
Go directly to jail!
I will never rent from Airbnb why would I trust someone else house while a hotel and a motel is more affordable and safer
Holiday Inn 🏨 has entered the chat room.
Another one of those Indian scams. What would they think of next?
Just shows how AirBnB, Vrbo etc only care about profit and let the scum landlords rule. Shut down all these sites, lower rent overall and help everyone except greedy nasty landlords. Each and every one of them will never use these services.
But, all AIRBNB is a scam.
East Indians just cant help themselves.
Airbnb should be illegal
We have a housing crisis and people wanna play
Sick
The law of unintended consequences.
That’s Indian scammers for you
Give em 1 year per listing
This exactly same scam happens when you travel in India. You book a hotel and pick up driver takes you to another location demanding money
So that’s 2 reasons to stay out. The other being lack of indoor plumbing in all areas.
So appreciative of this journalist. I used to have a lot of respect for Airbnb, but they ignore guests who try and report delinquent hosts. I am sure there were many guests who complained about site conditions and this bait-and-switch scam long before it hit the press. I really wish Airbnb had roving inspectors to verify in person that hosts are indeed offering the same site and quality as advertised.
Of course there is a scam. That’s all people are doing now
Because the foreigners know how racist the legal system is here. They will only investigate white people’s claim. America is the same like Gaza for black Americans
Took 4 years DOJ charges. Air b&b. Anything good ppl somehow somewhere would find a way to scam ppl!Hope these 2 get convicted and get their concrete cell air b&b. Great work!
TWO, out of the whole world.
Make riches by others’ miseries. Wow
Funny how there’s a cancellation fee for renters but not for hosts
Scammers getting paid. 😂
Reason #1256 to not use air bnb and just book a hotel.
I have moved my guests several times for different issues. We are in old city with 100 yr old plumbing so anything can happen anytime.
I also have same listings under different account because airbnb algorithm is dead at times and when i open another identical listing it will start get booking. Needless to say, there are rare incidents where double booking has happened. These guys 100 listings. I dont see where the scam is.
This is on Airbnb. Their fraud team should’ve caught this!
As a victim of discrimination on the platform I will NEVER use AirBnB
I would never use air bnb or virbo.
Yeah he is guilty with those eyebrows
INDIAN IMIGRANT SCAMMER ! THAT WHY THEY HERE !
They had a decent business but fked themselves over due to greed. we should make a lesson out of them
These companies have to go. Just stay in a hotel, probably has a restaurant and z bar attached!
She should gather all the horrible images of that nasty AirBnB locations and make a parody AirBnB commercial and post if on AirBnB’s social media sites. This why I always stay in Hotels because I know what to expect. AirBnB is not guaranteed a good experience. The traveler is at the mercy of the person “renting” the space.
This man lives in my building
Tech bros ruin hotels.
So much work to catch these…
I truly believe I was recently scammed for the first time by Airbnb. Just around new years I booked a place in Houston and I’m not very familiar with the neighborhoods so much so I trusted the pictures that were taken. I didn’t realize how pictures of the outside were taken on a drone camera and avoided close ups of the actual surrounding houses. This was newly built town houses and the inside looked good. $780 for 3 Nights. When we got there we were in a ghetto that looked almost comparable to a 3rd world country. Very sketchy looking people around. We were then waiting on the access code for at least 1 hour. I had already been confirmed for early check in but it was like that was disregarded. In the meantime we went to look at a room but it was very expensive so we went back. Once inside the furniture looked similar to the furniture on this news report. Used and recycled. The head board literally was leaned up against the bed and wall. Cheap brick wallpaper. We then spoke to friends from the area and they warned us to leave ASAP as the area is not safe. We were driving a Benz truck that stuck out and weren’t comfortable here so we left and spent more money on a room but a better location. Now I’m waiting on a refund considering this was not what I expected and a very cheap deceiving Airbnb add. I never ran into an issue like this on Airbnb before but I certainly won’t be using any more.
Give those scammers maximum penalty allowable by law, what scums. And banned air bnb from all cities in the United States. They the reason home prices and rent keeps going up. We getting more and more homeless people on the street bc they cant afford rent, meanwhile air bnb homes are sitting vacant and only getting rented out 1 week out of the month. Not only that, but they also creates nuisance for the neighborhood.
Yes and no. Sometimes they’re a problem, but plus side, 90% of the time, no annoying neighbors.
And this is why I don’t do Airbnb’s! 3:01
hopefully airbnb goes out of business and ends this wealth inequality nightmare.
vrbo is in cahoots with google. I just tried to look up a local business and i got a vrbo website that tried to mimmic the buisiness and book people into vacation rentals near the business. People need to outlaw STRs. They are disgusting to our society.
I am sure this has been going on for a looooooong time, luckily they ran into a journalist and got them out.
Hotels, airlines, car dealerships, etc do this daily without issue, i dont see the problem.
A lot of AirBnB listinga in my area are in the ghetto! I feel so bad for the people who book those 😬
Down with AirBnB!!
Now they need to investigate $100 cleaning fees at these places.
Or 100 pet fees, when it was as clean or cleaner w my 2 dogs than when I got there.
You can’t scam people for years and then be like, “we already stopped so it’s fine”.
I’m only going with hotels
Look into their cleaning fee charges. It’s quite outrageous…smh
They make other host look bad there’s genuine people out their trying share a great experience and their home with others 🤦♂️
Sadly this is still happening. In June of 2023, I had a Vrbo host call me about my booking less than 3 hours before check-in. They told me there was a plumbing issue for the property and offered me a “better” property for my trouble. The “better” property had a Vacate or Quit notice on the door, was covered in bugs, half of the electrical outlets didn’t work, there was exposed wire in multiple locations in the house, the fridge had standing water floating in it, one of the beds didn’t have sheets, and when I complained they told me I could leave if I didn’t like it, but I was staying for one night with multiple friends who flew in from out of town and different states. Vrbo didn’t refund my money because they said I agreed to the second property and it was out of their control. I paid $2,667 for one night at this house and had people from out of town staying there who had no where else to go in such short notice. It was embarrassing. I am Black and hope that they didn’t target me for that reason like this new story says.
2,600 for ONE NIGHT?? WT…?
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 yeah and it was probably just $500 for the stay and then the rest was cleaning fees and
Thats why I just use hotels still
I only book to hotels. Im not giving my money to people with multiple homes. I will not do it.
Underground scam callers on next level of scams .
how much ppp loans did those guys get? They look like the type of people that would fill out an honest ppp loan application
I told Airbnb about this and they closed my account! Now they’re getting what they deserve. This happened to me in Europe!
Airbnb ensure people get refunds
Of course, Indian. Of course.
Lol. I was about to say.
H ?!?
That’s why HOTELS are always a better choice
Not only are they frauds but they’re racist too? These two are definitely unfit for common society.
They would have scammed their way to Dubai
This scam is similar to the early days of eBay auctions. Fake accounts to run up the auction bids. Then message something happened to the item right before shipping.
They went ahead and indicted when they started scamming white peoples 3 years since somebody told
they harmed mainly blacks? well now im on their side.
You’re kidding me. I’m very shocked.
“If they try to move you to a second location you’re in danger” isn’t just for kidnapping victims.
Great job to the investigative journalist. I stopped using AirB&B years ago and I’ll never go back. I’d rather have the predictability of hotels vice cleaning fees, insane hosts, or surprise charges.