Airbnb Host Accused of Running $8.5 Million Scam

L'aigrefin sévissait sur la plateforme Airbnb entre autres. MAXPPP – Mourad ALLILI

Shray Goel est accusé d'avoir organisé une escroquerie Airbnb sur plusieurs propriétés aux États-Unis.

An Airbnb host has been charged in California for allegedly masterminding a nationwide scam that included booking fake homes on several rental sites, including Airbnb.

Shray Goel was indicted on December 28 for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft by a grand jury in the Central District of California.

He is accused of running a scam since 2018 in which he double-booked guests at some of the more than 100 properties he manages across the country, then found excuses to either cancel at the last minute or move one of the parties to a less attractive property.

Goel raked in $8.5 million from these schemes through various rental sites in 2018 and 2019 alone.

According to the indictment, Mr. Goel created separate listings for the same property at different prices, then canceled the cheaper rental citing plumbing problems and by offering customers a lower quality rental with furniture in poor condition.

Fake reviews on its rental apartments

Airbnb policy does not allow guests to receive a full refund if they stay overnight in their accommodation. If the guest chose not to stay, Goel would lie to Airbnb or other companies that he had indeed stayed in the accommodation. According to the indictment, Goel and his associates berated and threatened customer service representatives in order to deny customers refunds to which they were entitled.

Goel would also delete and re-list apartments so that no one could see his bad reviews and used some of his fake accounts to write positive and glowing reviews of his properties. The indictment lists 19 separate apartments where Goel carried out the alleged scheme, including in Austin, Nashville, Malibu, Denver and Los Angeles.