Airbnb has apologised to a woman after an apartment host falsely claimed she had caused thousands of pounds’ worth of damage and used images she says were digitally manipulated to back up his allegations.
The London-based academic was refunded almost £4,300, and an internal review of how the case was dealt with has been launched at the short-term accommodation rental company.
The incident highlights how cheap and easily available artificial intelligence software is now being used to manipulate images to give false evidence of what has happened in consumer complaints, according to one security expert.
Fraud is a criminal charge and AirBnB’s arbitration clause is for civil disputes. Original commenter is saying police should be investigating this.
Ah, you forget that the guest and the host are not doing business with each other; both are dealing with AirBnB which means AirBnB is the only party with standing to file a criminal complaint against the host. And that their TOS binds the guest. Given how completely they caved to the guest, I’m guessing even an arbitration hearing would have gone her way.
Police don’t need someone to file charges, if they believe fraud has taken place they can prosecute regardless of the victims wishes.
Otherwise people could be blackmailed into not pressing charges against murder and the like.
In fact, in many places ordinary citizens can’t file criminal charges even if they wanted to; it’s often reserved for state (polity or part of) prosecutors. But pressing charges is different, it’s just an agreement to cooperate with the investigation.
Wouldn’t the fraud charge be against the host?
In the US it would probably have to be the women who pressed charges. And a DA would have to agree to follow through.