Describing himself as a real estate “visionary,” Shray Goel is behind a massive fraud on Airbnbbeing accused of deceiving numerous customers with fake properties and then refusing to reimburse them.
Shray Goel could be described as a “diabolical genius”, if not to compare himself to a visionary on his own website. The man is now accused of having orchestrated a massive fraud on Airbnb, having booked nearly 100 ghost properties. This stratagem, already pointed out in 2019 by Vice, would have earned him $7 million. Charged with wire fraud and identity theft, Goel allegedly, among other things, intimidated Airbnb representatives to avoid refunds. Let’s see how he did it.
A well-rehearsed ploy put in place to trap Airbnb travelers
Goel’s fraud was launched in January 2018 and lasted until November the following year. The man used a variety of fake host accounts on Airbnb and to a lesser extent on Vrbo, a competitor belonging to the tourism giant Expedia, in the same way as Abritel for example.
Some accounts used names like “Alex & Brittany”, “Becky & Andrew” and “Annie & Chase”. Shray Goel gave himself credit with his website bearing his image, trying to give visitors a reassuring image, and even claiming to have integrated AI into his daily life, while posing on a yacht just to flatter his tormented ego a little more.
More concretely, Goel’s scam involved a double reservation system, to attract several tourists to the same property, and then encourage them to make a replacement reservation, often in less upscale accommodations. When customers refused to be somehow downgraded, Goel and his accomplices refused to reimburse them. Some properties were downright fictitious, others were not even affiliated with Goel. The use of fake accounts and stolen identities necessarily made it more difficult to detect the scam and left victims without a solution.
Despite an arrest warrant, Goel does not flinch and his site remains active
Goel and his team pushed the vice to the limit to give credibility to their approach, by leaving positive but necessarily misleading opinions on their advertisements, using their different accounts. To avoid negative reviews from aggrieved guests, they would deactivate and then republish the listings, sometimes under a new host profile. The indictment also reveals a complex scheme where customers were manipulated with false excuses, changes of ownership, and lies to rental platforms to keep the money.
The abuse even extended to Airbnb employees, with pressure and threats towards customer service representatives. Goel demanded to be transferred to another representative or supervisor to avoid reimbursements. Some customers simply did not receive the refunds they were entitled to due to these pressures.
Although an arrest warrant was issued against Shray Goel on December 28, 2023, he remains silent in the face of the accusations, and his website remains active. An enigmatic message published on his X account (formerly Twitter) on December 30 suggests personal problems. In any case, Airbnb, which had promised changes after the article, said it supported the authorities’ investigation to ensure accountability of those at fault. The platform indicated that it had collaborated with the US Attorney and the FBI. In recent years, the site has strengthened its policy to protect itself from fraudsters.
Source : 404media
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