When Anne Bradbury, an experienced Airbnb user, found what looked like the perfect flat to rent for a weekend away in Amsterdam last month she emailed her friends, who quickly agreed it looked great.

After checking the reviews, and making sure the reviewers were legitimate – as she had done several times before – and then making several further checks that the listing was genuine, she went ahead and made the booking.

Three weeks later the 27-year-old marketing executive from London has just learned she’s fallen for a highly sophisticated scam and has lost almost £800.

The chilling reality about Bradbury’s experience is that if it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone who books on the site. She has used Airbnb many times – she typically books four large flats or houses a year – and has years of online experience.

Her case will send a shiver down the spine of travellers who have booked an Airbnb flat this summer. It also serves as a timely reminder to other users never to pay for an Airbnb reservation outside its own payment system. Until recently, the fast-growing property website, which has allowed 80 million people around the world to rent a spare room or whole home from a complete stranger, has been relatively untroubled by the fraudsters who have plagued other property rental websites – most notably Home Away.

But what happened to Bradbury demonstrates that Airbnb, which now operates in 191 countries, is similarly being targeted by people who will go to extraordinary lengths to mimic the website’s booking process, and use it to relieve victims of their holiday cash.

In her case, the fraudsters had stolen a legitimate Amsterdam Airbnb listing, changed its details, and set up a fake overall home page – complete with a fake “live chat service”, to convince her and probably other victims. “I’m quite used to booking flats for large groups and found one quite quickly that looked great. In retrospect it was perhaps a little too cheap, but you can still find bargains on Airbnb if you hunt around,” she says.

The listing of the flat she wanted to book instructed her to email the owner directly to check availability as they weren’t as quick at responding to messages online, and because they claimed to have the flat listed on other property websites. She also sent a request to book through Airbnb, and was sent emails and website links that all looked exactly as if they had come from the real site.

The flat in Amsterdam was perfect … it just didn’t exist. Photograph: Beulah Devaney/The Guardian

To make sure that the booking was confirmed she went on to what she thought was the Airbnb chat service where she was reassured that her booking was real. She checked the website address and even checked the bank account to which she had been told to transfer the £787 fee to a Barclays account – listed as being in Airbnb’s name.

“I’ve now realised that the Airbnb chat service doesn’t exist and the scammers must have created it on their own micro-website. The booking that I tried to book was a real page, but the fraudsters had gone in and somehow changed the photos, and all the details. It turned out that the positive reviews that I had checked were all for the other flat,” she says.

When she realised all was not well, she had problems getting details from the real Airbnb, as users can only contact the company about an existing, or real, booking. When Airbnb finally came back to her, she was told that it could do nothing to help her as she had made the booking “outside” its website.

She was told that Airbnb could do nothing to help her as she had made the booking 'outside' its website

Bradbury is by no means the first victim of this type of Airbnb scam. Last week Guardian Money took a call from a distressed German family who had just arrived in London with their children only to find that the promised accommodation did not exist.

It also comes amid problems for Airbnb travellers who book in cities where local authorities are clamping down against the site. Money’s Consumer Champions’ column this week (see page 44) highlights the case of a reader whose Airbnb booking in Berlin was cancelled just prior to their arrival. Berlin authorities have ruled that local residents cannot rent out their entire flat – although many hundreds of Berlin whole-flat listings still remain on Airbnb. This week Iceland revealed that it is considering restricting Airbnb lettings to 90 days a year per dwelling, or face punitive tax rates.

Airbnb told Money: “Airbnb protects hosts and guests by handling all payment and communication through our secure platform. When you keep your details secure and payment and communication strictly on the Airbnb platform, payments are accurate and your account is secure. It’s one of the reasons that so many hosts and guests book through Airbnb.

“In the interests of providing excellent customer service, we are in contact with the guest and are providing them with our support.”

• Home insurer Admiral claims to have become the first major insurer to offer specific cover for home sharing. For an extra premium, Admiral Host allows customers to rent out their home for up to 90 days. It covers up to two adult paying guests per bedroom, and says it will pay out if the home is trashed by guests. Many existing homes policies exclude having paying guests in your home.

How to avoid becoming a holiday booking victim

• If making an Airbnb booking, the first rule is always pay through its internal payments system. Never send money outside it, as a bank transfer, however plausible the reason given. Airbnb’s internal payments system does not pay the host until the day after you move in. It is the main reason that Airbnb has been so successful, and protects visitors from frauds.

Berlin has recently restricted the letting of whole flats. Photograph: Britta Pedersen/AFP/Getty Images

• Beware any weblink that arrives in an email, however plausible it looks. If you receive an email from Airnbnb or other website, do not click on it. Instead, open a new page in your browser, go to the website and log on to your account. If it’s legit, the same message will be there. It’s tedious, but it could save you thousands.

• When booking a villa from the Owners Direct/HomeAway sites, follow the same principles. Always look for villas that offer its internal payments system and guarantee. These give you a means to recover your losses, if it turns out that the booking was fraudulent – provided you comply with its terms. Read the small print before making any payment.

• If your chosen villa doesn’t offer the above and the owner insists on a bank transfer before the trip, be extremely wary. Search to make sure the property exists, and do as many background checks on the owner as you can. Don’t send any money to an account unless you have spoken to the owner on the telephone number listed on the website. If you have any suspicions – it’s too cheap, they’re too keen/offering a huge discount for early booking – then move on to another one, preferably one that accepts internal payment. Many people have lost £5,000 or more on scams. Once you’ve have transferred the money, you will never see it again if it turns out you’ve been scammed.

• Don’t fall for the “our accommodation is booked, but we have another property nearby” scam. This is a common one that has hit lots of holidaymakers around the world. Ignore it, open a new browser and start the process again.