Woman says a man scammed her out of thousands with a fake Airbnb rental. She tracked down his identity through the Wi-Fi log

A woman says she tracked down a man she claims scammed her out of thousands of dollars, using information she found on a Wi-Fi network. The confrontation has been circulating online, reports The Daily Dot. It shows how scammers can leave a digital trail that leads back to them.

The situation began when the woman arrived at a building where she believed she had a real Airbnb booking. She discovered the rental did not exist and realized she had lost a large amount of money. Rather than walking away, she did some investigating and connected the property to a specific person.

In a video clip reshared by an X user, the woman is shown standing in the lobby, confronting the man over the phone. The video was originally uploaded by @samjosells on TikTok back in 2023. Sam appears to be a friend of the woman seen on the video.  

Woman says Wi-Fi network revealed the man’s name and birth year

During the call, she tells him, “Oh, that’s so sad, because your name is on the Wi-Fi code, Mr. Tyler, born May 1996.” She says she found his name and birth year by checking the available Wi-Fi networks in the building.

She does not stop there. She tells him she knows he no longer has access to the property because he was evicted. She then gives him an ultimatum, saying, “I’ll have a sleepover with your parents tonight,” unless he returns the money.

In the video, her friend can be heard laughing in the background as the situation unfolds. The woman used the man’s own information against him, pointing to a mistake in how he had handled his own identity while running the alleged scheme. Other scam victims have also taken matters into their own hands, including one case where a woman froze her bank accounts after a scammer targeted her online.

The reaction online has included both support and doubt. One commenter said, “Scamming is wrong, but her honesty, its calmness, and her gathering of evidence is smarter than any impulsive response.” Another wrote, “This is like a joke, seriously.” A different commenter argued the man was not a skilled scammer, saying, “This is a beginner scammer, the pros have plenty of ways to hide the IP, one of them is using VPN.”

Not everyone is convinced the video is genuine. Since the account relies entirely on the woman’s version of events, some users on X have questioned whether the video was staged. Not all scam encounters end this way, as shown in a separate case involving a couple found dead at home after sending money to a scammer.

The woman seen in the video had responded to her friend’s video back then. In her TikTok account @livvoogus, Liv explained what was going on. They were apparently given the wrong door codes by the host. 

A neighbor told them that the original leaseholder of the apartment was evicted for renting out the property on Airbnb without authorization. Liv says they couldn’t find accommodation in other hotels that night and had to stay at a friend’s Airbnb. However, Airbnb did refund them, Liv says, and partially funded a hotel room for the group the following night. 

Whether or not this story is real, it offers an example of how digital footprints can be used to identify people after the man allegedly failed to secure his Wi-Fi network with anonymous credentials. One commenter summed up the reaction, describing the woman’s use of “wifi logs and digital traces as their weapons” as an “absolute legend move.”