A Wellington family hoping to catch a break in the City of Sails, were instead scammed out of thousands.
In lieu of a holiday away Mel Jansen and her family spent the summer of 2017 at home, after they lost $4800 to scammers they had been led to believe were Airbnb staff.
The summer could have been their last holiday together as Mel Jansen's husband, Luke Jansen, was on kidney dialysis and was very sick at the time.
Jansen spoke to the Herald yesterday, after reading of the Auckland woman who , with her friends, also lost $4800 to scammers pretending to be Airbnb.
She said the story had an uncanny similarity to her family's tale.
"It was pretty horrendous, but it sounds exactly the same."
She's one of a handful others that have contacted the Herald with their stories of being duped by fake Airbnb representatives.
Jansen's ordeal with the scammers began in late 2016, when she went to book a Coatesville villa, via Airbnb, for her extended family group of 25.
It was her first time using the accommodation booking site. Together with her 18-year-old daughter she searched the site and found the villa for $4800.
The booking was for 10 days over the New Year from December 29, 2017.
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