Leave it to the Russians to find a way to use a service like Airbnb for illegal purposes.

It has recently been discovered by the masses that the mega-popular accommodation service is a near-perfect service through which to funnel dirty money.

This is according to “underground forums and cybersecurity researchers” consulted by The Daily Beast, who explained how scammers leverage Airbnb to launder dirty cash from stolen credit cards.

But while we might have just caught on to the practice, one current and “experienced” scammer explained:

“People [have] been doing it forever.”

Looking to several Russian-language crime forums, a number of recent posts see users looking for other people to collaborate with to abuse Airbnb’s service:

According to Rick Holland, VP of strategy from cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows, these operations rely on an individual or group using legitimate or stolen Airbnb accounts to request bookings and make payments to their collaborating Airbnb host. The host then sends back a percentage of the profits, despite no one staying in the property.

And alleged scammers are keen to share their insight on the how, what, and why:

“The money is 50/50,” one apparent scammer wrote on a Russian crime forum in August. “You receive the money within two days after the booking date,” it continues, and adds that there are “story-telling hosts” ready, likely referring to hosts who are in on the laundering.

Another poster on the same forum says they are looking for “hosts for cooperation,” and a third implies they will launder the funds specifically through Russian hosts who already have reviews on Airbnb.

A fourth apparent fraudster on a second Russian-language crime forum says they are looking for people to receive and withdraw funds from Airbnb, but “we need long-term cooperation on an ongoing basis,” the post adds. A fifth carder on another Russian forum said they were looking for “permanent” hosts to funnel between $1,000 and $3,000 at a time.

The laundering may work outside Russia as well. In another post, a sixth scammer, who is also willing to split the cash 50-50, says they are looking for hosts and “the country does not matter,” their post reads. Another post on a Russian-language forum is looking for EU-based hosts.

The majority of the posts The Daily Beast found were from this year and, using real, but corrupt hosts, scammers are able to circumvent the “leave a review” protection policy Airbnb has put in place, where customers can let other potentials know that the host is legitimate.

But if they can’t find a host, “scammers may also want to use hacked Airbnb accounts, or purchase some in bulk”:

In February, an apparent fraudster posted on an English-language forum looking to buy Airbnb accounts, and said they were willing to pick up a maximum of 10 a day.

Deep, hey?

However, although discussion of the scam is evident throughout various forums, it is not known how widespread the practice is. Nick Shapiro, Airbnb’s global head of trust and risk management, provided a statement:

“We have a real-time detection system that scores each and every Airbnb reservation ahead of time for risk. Using machine learning and predictive analytics, models instantly evaluate hundreds of signals to flag and then stop any suspicious activity,” Shapiro wrote.

The statement also said “Airbnb uses a multi-layer defense [sic] strategy to prevent fraudsters from ever accessing the platform in the first place,” but how that squares with the reality that one half of this scam relies on real hosts or legitimate but hijacked accounts is unclear.

“When we are made aware of suspicious credit card activity, we employ micro authorization friction and 3D-Secure to verify if a credit card is being used by its owner and assess the level of risk associated with a transaction. We also do a number of things to safeguard Airbnb accounts themselves, including using multi-factor authentication whenever a login is attempted from a new device,” Shapiro continued.

Okay, Shapiro.

However, as Holland suggested, “if long-established and reputable e-commerce and retail providers are struggling with carding activity, then it’s no surprise that a relatively new service like Airbnb is also affected”.

And that’s how they do it in Russia.

[source:thedailybeast]