There's a huge Airbnb scam hiding on the streets of London. I uncovered a network of accounts that had been pumping out fake reviews and fake listings for years. The scam encompasses more than 200 listings, 2,100 reviews. And it's really weird wired.co.uk/article/airbnb…
At the centre of the scam is this apartment block in Battersea that is being run as a de facto hotel. When I stayed there I was put in the wrong apartment. One group in the building complained of a missing bed. Another of an empty kitchen. I decided to investigate. 
I soon discovered the scam was far bigger than one building. The Airbnb accounts I uncovered had spent years posting fake host and guest reviews, fake listings, and had used pictures of, amongst other people, the chief executive of a Brazilian wireless carrier. It gets weirder.
The building has 24 apartments in it. When I looked, it was listed 28 times on Airbnb. But duplicate listings are just the start. In some instances the scammers used mirrored versions of images to make it appear as though it was listing two different properties. Clever, huh?
In reviews on Airbnb, guests complain of being checked into properties they didn't book, of being told to lie about their identities, of having reservations cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, and of being asked to leave positive reviews in exchange for future discounts.
Even David Schwimmer’s wife got caught up in it. Here’s Zoe Buckman's review of one of the Airbnb listings managed by the scam accounts from January. She wasn’t impressed. "This place is unsafe! We fled because of the threats and they refused to refund us," she wrote.
The company outsourced the management of its rentals to a call centre in the Philippines. In reviews on Airbnb, guests complain of being lied to and abused by call centre staff and of receiving woeful levels of service. When I phoned up to complain they just hung up on me.
Airbnb has suspended all the host accounts and listings I found while it investigates. But the scam is laughably easy to replicate. As one person in the industry told me, rules around Airbnb rentals are "basically impossible for the authorities to police". Airbnb denies this.
This is the curious tale of a man called Christian, the Catholic church, David Schwimmer’s wife, a secret hotel and an Airbnb scam running riot on the streets of London wired.co.uk/article/airbnb…
