I have rented an apartment through “Immobilienscout24.De” (web site for rentals in Germany). Because the owner (Frank John) of this apartment lives in London, he wrote me the rental procedure will be made via AirBNB with the thought of using their payment booking procedure. An email, which looked like it was generated by AirBNB was send to my personal email (linked to AirBNB) within 15 minutes of when I requested the booking.
The email from '[email protected]' was send to my personal email address, which only AirBNB must have got, and this email looked all legit with banking details provided and a AirBNB guarantee included. Bank details:
Account: airbnb inc
sort code: 20-49-17
account number: 83191478
iban: gb20barc20491783191478
swift code/bic (bank identifier code): barcgb22
bank name: barclays
Once the money was transferred to this UK bank account from my Deutsche Bank account I received another email 24 hours later from '[email protected]' that they money was received and the booking was confirmed.
I had already contact with the host (Thomas Stuart) regarding specific property details (email and via the message system of AirBNB). A few days later, after many emails to the host and owner and no answer, I thought it became very suspicious. Contact AirBNB to ask for the opinion, and I was informed by an AirBNB telephone staff; "sorry this is a hoax, we have removed the property from our website, we are sorry". And that’s it, the property listing on AirBNB was removed. The host and the owner do not reply anymore...
Barclays bank account is used by criminals! Therefore: I wanted to cancel my payment! Normally I have 30 days officially to get a payment back.
Barclays Bank should make sure all the accounts under AirBNB name are blocked, sealed and available to refund the victims!
Barclays Bank is possibly co-defendent in this case since this is a case of a client who acts criminally using their bank. When you open a bank account in the UK, they must do a thorough KYC (Know Your Customer) check. You are liable if you did not do it!
Barclays Bank is also likely to be in breach of Money Laundering and "Know Your Client" regulations since the scam has been ongoing now for many months.
Barclays is liable for negligence, because it is normally very difficult to open a bank account in the UK without proving your ID; there is a strict Know Your Customer rule in place in the UK.
I also filed charges with the German and UK Police because of this fraud.
The same eMail I sent to BBC, so they publicize this story.
Thank you ever so much!
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