Whether we’re talking about a local community or a service that spans the entire world, there will often be someone who amasses enough goodwill that they become trusted by other members of the community.
These reputations rarely come out of thin air and are often based on a person’s effective leadership, strong sense of compassion, or expertise that convinces us they know what they’re talking about.
But even though these reputations are often deserved, they’re also not a guarantee that the people who enjoy them earned them the honest way.
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They’re also not a guarantee that people won’t take advantage of their good standing to give others a false sense of security so they can do something underhanded.
Before making a trip to Qingdao, China, a woman who goes by Yunfei booked an Airbnb.
As the South China Morning Post reported , she paid the equivalent of $250 to use the apartment for three nights.
At no point before or during her stay did Yunfei meet the apartment’s owner in person.
Other than the booking itself, the only communication she shared with him was a question about checking in and a request for the wifi password.
However, the ratings on the host’s account didn’t give her much reason to be worried about him.
After all, the man was was ranked as a “superhost,” which means he not only had a lot of experience with the service, but also that many previous users had rated him highly, if not perfectly.
However, it wasn’t long before Yunfei saw something that raised her suspicions.
As she said , “I found a motion sensor monitor at the flat’s entrance and two in the two bedrooms, which is odd since the flat had not been renovated for smart-home automation.”
Upon this discovery, she turned the sensors to the walls and covered them with stickers.
She then searched the room for hidden cameras.
As smoke detectors and televisions are common places to hide small recorders, she made sure to check these and was cautious enough to cut the power to the TV when she didn’t find anything.
Finally, she found what she was looking for in a wifi router that faced the bed.
She noticed that one of the lights looked unusual and compared the router in her room to other photos of the same model online.
They didn’t match, so she unscrewed the router and found a digital memory card inside.
As soon as she found the card, Yunfei called the police.
As the South China Morning Post reported , they removed the equipment she discovered and ended up arresting the host.
While they detained him for 20 days, they discovered that he had been secretly filming his guests since March.
Not only was the host arrested, but his apartment was also removed from Airbnb’s platform.
A representative from Airbnb also said that the company reached out to Yunfei to both apologize and refund her money.
