Also in Kenya, traditional holidays and hotel or private home bookings, through agencies or known channels, have recently been joined by the international phenomenon of online platforms such as Air Bnb. Like 'booking.com', Air BnB has also been gaining a foothold in the African country for some time now, with thousands of establishments relying on the virtual agency, which exploits the idea of 'sharing' and offers space online to promote temporary accommodation for tourists and even business travellers.

But scams also proliferate on these sites in Kenya. Not least because through Air BnB one can establish a direct relationship with the so-called 'host'.
Beware therefore, because in Kenya there are increasing cases of tourists who, after booking on pages that refer to 'luxury' facilities at competitive prices, in the most popular and frequented coastal or inland locations, have been left without a bed and forced to find makeshift solutions at the last minute for their holiday.

This is the case with the latest arrest by the Kenya Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), which, thanks to the doubts of a scrupulous bank clerk about some transfers by one of its clients, caught a 24-year-old woman red-handed, who had been summoned by the bank for some suspicious transactions.
According to the DCI, Wakesho had set up online accounts claiming ownership of ghost AirBnBs in Mombasa, which she used to extort money from unsuspecting customers looking for accommodation.

More than ten thousand potential customers allegedly fell into his net. The ruse was simple, the arrestee used an online platform similar to Air BnB for wire transfer payments and used several SIM cards with stolen IDs, for Mpesa payments, to prevent the different transactions from being traced back to a single person directing to a single bank account.

The Kenyan police are continuing the search, not only for the fraudster, who is seeing more and more complaints every day, but also for all those who are using the same criminal scheme.
Certainly this arrest will set a precedent, but in the meantime we recommend the utmost caution to anyone booking a holiday in Kenya through these platforms used worldwide.