Ask HN: Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

  • The title is slightly confusing. Note that it is a ((fake Airbnb) owner), not a (fake (Airbnb owner)).

  • I don't have any advice but I hope they are able to recover their money. Shitty people like that are why some US states like Massachusetts now require all renters to find apartments through a registered broker. Sounds nice and safe but it ended up in me paying 4 months rent to get a new apartment. (2 months rent + security deposit + broker fee which was over a month's rent)

  • There's more to it, more php machinery, but in short:

    Basic Info

    - username at home dir: comitin1 - LiteSpeed server - SERVER_ADMIN=webmaster@airbnb.com-itinerary.app - English not first language

    - Sends over location, victim ip-port pair, protocol, client, TLS encryption suite

    Client (Victim):

    From main.html:

    POST /transaction.php?id=1 --> transaction.html

    POST /transaction-process.php --> attacker no longer cares...empty response body

    Admin

    https://airbnb.com-itinerary.app/rooms/762837232/files/manag...

    Login with POST /index.php with username and password

    There is a whole interface for easy management of properties, with its own UI! It does proper client and server-side validation of inputs, uses a set of images of houses and hosters.

    POST /process-data.php

    POST /send-discount.php for a particular property id

    POST /edit-discount-process.php

  • Is "Not so technical" euphemism for naive? This sucks, but also seems like a low effort scam.

  • This is gonna sound a bit granny-suck-eggs... but I hope your friend reported it to the police?