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The Genius Way This Reporter Uncovered Airbnb Scammers - YouTube
Channel: Inside Edition
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I thought what happened was a fluke I
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thought it was a one-off thing just one
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bad guy but it just kept getting bigger
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and bigger
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journalist Ali Khan she booked an Airbnb
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in Chicago and ended up uncovering a
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massive scam I got a phone call few
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minutes of course opposed to check-in
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saying place was flooded and we weren't
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gonna be able to go to the place
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thankfully he invited us to stay at a
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much bigger place and imply that it was
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much nicer we found it it was much
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bigger and definitely not much nicer
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only when we arrived basically the way I
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described the places as a flophouse
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that's to say there was no real
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furniture there was no forks and knives
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or plates or really any sign that people
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lived there everything was really dirty
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and gross it was just 8 beds and a giant
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apartment complex and that was all that
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there was so it was very clear that no
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one actually lived in this place we
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ended up staying there for two nights we
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had booked four nights on Airbnb and
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then the guy kicked us out a saying that
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other guests were coming and we were
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gonna need to leave and we decided to
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worry about getting a refund when we got
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home because we were in a different city
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or we didn't really know where we were
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and it was just very stressful to deal
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with at a time the experience wasn't
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just stressful it was expensive we
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booked our Airbnb for about $1,200 and
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after going back and forth with a bunch
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of case managers and Airbnb over the
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course of two weeks or so I was able to
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get back about $400 and not only were we
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out the money that we gave Airbnb we
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also had a booked a hotel so it ended up
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costing us a lot of money to get caught
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up in the scam
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it's a classic bait-and-switch your
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photos on Airbnb that look really nice
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and it seems too good to be true and
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then it ends up being too good to be
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true because that place isn't actually
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available for rent after the incident
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Conte decided to investigate when I got
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home and started looking into what
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happened it became really obvious and
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this guy was not above board who we
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talked to
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first of all he called me from Los
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Angeles number and we were in Chicago so
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it was pretty obvious he wasn't like a
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local property owner I tried to do a
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reverse lookup for the phone number
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found that it wasn't really a phone
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number it was a Google number that
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someone had made you know maybe that day
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or something so it was not traceable the
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person I allegedly rented from went by
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Becky and Andrew a nice couple standing
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on the beach holding hands that kind of
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a thing like who would be suspicious of
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that but as it turns out that was kind
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of their formula for creating these fake
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profiles is to have a man and a woman's
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name and you know photos that just
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looked too staged to actually be real
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like a very like Instagram friendly kind
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of a couple then I started looking at
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the photos and put them in Google search
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did a reverse search saw that they were
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coming up on surfing websites and stuff
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and then started doing the same thing
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for some of the other profiles that had
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left them reviews so I click on those
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look up their photos see that they were
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also stock brokers so who was behind the
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curtains
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I've tried extremely hard to get in
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touch with this person this you might
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imagine the closest I got was I called
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his property rental company that he had
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listed on LinkedIn and I talked to
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someone who said he's name was Patrick
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Patrick seemed very concerned and afraid
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about the fact that I said I was
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reporting on this piece he swore that he
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was a the person himself but I don't
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know if this person actually existed he
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wouldn't give me a last name it's a
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mystery Conti wrote about her experience
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provice and her article struck a chord
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I've heard from hundreds if not more
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than a thousand people who have said
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they've had similar experiences so well
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I can't comment or speculate about the
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scope of this problem it seems to be
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happening all over the world
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law enforcement took notice the morning
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after it came out I did get contacted by
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a member of the FBI who expressed
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interest in looking into this kind of
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fraud and Airbnb paid attention as well
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after the article came out and went
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viral and presented but I can only
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imagine was it an enormous public facing
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crisis for them they did promise to
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verify all seven million of their
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listings by the end of 2020 and it's
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unclear how they're going to do that
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they haven't given a lot of detail about
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what their their plans are for that but
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evidently they're trying to fix the
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problem
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Conti says the company hadn't done
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enough to protect guests from these
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kinds of scams there's always risks when
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you're doing business with strangers
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right but historically they haven't been
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much help when those kind of
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transactions go wrong they kind of take
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a very hands-off approach and say that's
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between the two of you we just
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facilitate the communication they don't
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actually do any of the police saying
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that you would expect if you had a bad
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experience at a hotel there's a human
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being that you can go talk to and you
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know what you're supposed to get in
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terms of customer service with a
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platform like Airbnb that stuff doesn't
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really exist
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in a statement inside addition.com
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Airbnb said engaging in deceptive
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behaviors such as substituting one
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listing for another or leaving
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fraudulent reviews are clear violations
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of our community standards and we take
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these reports very seriously
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based on the reported information we
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have removed the hosts brought to our
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attention and will continue to
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investigate further the company has
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reached out to Conte and her party to
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provide support to them Airbnb CEO Brian
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Chesky recently announced the company is
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introducing consumer protections to
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prevent this sort of thing from
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happening again these include an Airbnb
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guest guarantee a 24/7 neighbor hotline
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and expanded screenings of so-called
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high-risk reservations the company also
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announced that it is banning quote
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unquote party houses following a deadly
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shooting at an Airbnb rental being used
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for a Halloween party in Orinda
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California so how can you protect
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yourself from online lodging scammers
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the safest thing you can do is booked a
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hotel if you can afford it you can't
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afford it I would just say really
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closely scrutinize the people leaving
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reviews for your host they may be
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five-star reviews but are they actually
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real reviews you need to click on those
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profiles and see if they themselves
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their property owners they may also have
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12 properties and you know be actually
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the host leaving themselves a review
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House profile images can also be a
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giveaway one tell that I found pretty
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common is the photos I mean you can do a
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reverse lookup but also people aren't
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showing their face if they look very
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staged a lot of the photos they were
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using were people with their head turned
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away from the camera so that makes it
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harder for someone to call them out and
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be like hey using my photo you know
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that's like one way to kind of get
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around that is to not actually have
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somebody's face associated with the
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account despite all the attention
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generated by her article Conte says her
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phantom hosts may be back at it since
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article came out some of their profiles
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have been shut down but this camera
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has started creating new ones so I would
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just caution everyone to be careful out
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there because I think that as many
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profiles is Airbnb shuts down they're
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probably going to find a way to start
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this game all over again Conde says her
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experience holds cautionary lessons for
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people and their so-called sharing
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economy the moral of this tale is that
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you just have to not necessarily trust
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these platforms in the same way that you
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would traditional services like a taxi
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cab service or a hotel service with
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those services you at least know what
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you're getting there
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through regulated by the government in
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some way with these services they say
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that they're just platforms to connect
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people and that they're not actually you
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know in the business of policing the
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behavior people who use them so just be
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extra careful and if you can afford to
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use the ones that are regulated you
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should ask for kanji it may be some time
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before she uses Airbnb again I walked
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away from the experience thinking maybe
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I would use Airbnb again I don't think I
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plan on using it until they at least
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follow through on their promise to
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verify all their listings and even that
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I'm gonna want to make sure that they've
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actually done that so we'll see this is
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inside addition.com
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