Airbnb Super Scammer Allegedly Made $7M Listing Fake Properties, Running Bait-and-Switch Schemes: Indictment
According to an indictment obtained by PEOPLE, Shray Goel accepted 10,000 reservations for 100 properties — some of which never existed
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Close-up shot of a key to a vacation rental.An arrest warrant has been issued for Shray Goel, a former vacation rental host accused of defrauding thousands of customers
According to the indictment attached to the warrant obtained by PEOPLE, Goel was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after allegedly using Airbnb, VRBO and other rental platforms to operate a “double-booking bait-and-switch scheme” involving 100 properties in multiple states.
Some of his listings were legitimate, others were completely fake, per the indictment. Some properties were allegedly listed under “addresses that had no residential structure, were unaffiliated with the co-schemers, or did not exist at all."
Goel and others working under him allegedly accepted over 10,000 reservations in 2018 and 2019 and brought in $7 million.
To conduct the alleged scam, the indictment states, they often posted multiple listings for the same property under various “fake host accounts,” leading to a single rental to be booked by multiple people. The guest who booked at the highest price was able to actually stay at the property, and Goel would cancel all other reservations using a “false excuse” as to why the property suddenly became unavailable, according to the indictment.
He allegedly avoided paying cancellation fees or giving refunds for the canceled bookings by giving false information to the rental platform about the reservation details or whether or not the guest actually completed the stay.
In other cases, he allegedly offered an alternative property for the overbooked guests to stay in that he claimed was of equal quality. Per the indictment, here were also instances in which he simply stopped responding to the double-booked guests just before check-in, leaving them with no accommodations.
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Goel also allegedly removed and then re-listed properties on the same sites to get rid of negative guest reviews and prevent them from being removed by the platform.
He also used fake guest accounts to leave misleading positive reviews, according to the indictment.
Related: Airbnb Host Claims Nightmare Guest Raided Locked Bedroom, Harassed Her: 'I Could've Been Murdered'
In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Airbnb said, “Airbnb is built on trust, and bad actors have no place in our community. We supported the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI throughout their investigation to help ensure accountability, and we are thankful to them for their work.”
“We have taken multiple steps to strengthen our defenses against deceptive behavior, including measures like identity and listing verification which we believe will help further deter already rare instances of this type of activity,” they continued.
Goel did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. A phone number listed on his professional website is no longer in service.
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