Tracking down fake Airbnb owner

Question

Case: Not so technical colleague got scammed for 2 months rent. What can he do?Steps: 1. He found apartment listing on immobiliare.it2. Some emails were exchanged3. He receives the link to the _real_ airbnb listing4. He cant find it there, and the scammer sends the phishing page[1] (from @expertdesigner.eu)5. Soon after he receives another email saying that the database is down from @airbnb.sa.com and he should meanwhile move the money using transferwise.com6. Payment done7. Scammer replies: Payment receivedThe login page was quite well made, and I think most of non technical people might get fooled[1] The URL: https://airbnb.com-itinerary.app/rooms/762837232/files/login.php?id=572465&locale=en&sale=203&Thoughts?

gus_massa · Accepted Answer

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

nwsm · Answer

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)

dfyr · Answer

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

sonicxxg · Answer

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

philpem · Answer

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