Woman Followed Her Instincts And Found A Hidden Camera Inside Her Airbnb's Router
She noticed that the router facing the bed was emitting a strange light.
By Katrina Khairul Azman — 09 May 2019, 05:21 PM
A woman in China learned that she should always trust her gut when her suspicions led to the discovery of a hidden camera in an Airbnb
The woman, identified as Yunfei, arrived at the flat in Qingdao, Shandong province on 1 May, Beijing Youth Daily reported.
She did not meet the flat's owner, who was a highly rated Airbnb "Superhost".
When she entered the Airbnb, the woman noticed a motion sensor in the entrance.
She then checked to see if there were more and found two others in the bedrooms.
"This is odd since the flat had not been renovated for smart-home automation," Yunfei said, according to the South China Morning Post.
She immediately turned the sensors to face the wall and covered them with stickers.
Suspicious about the rest of the flat, Yunfei checked the television, smoke detectors, power adapters, and socket holes to look for hidden cameras
During her search, she noticed that the router facing the bed was emitting a strange light.
Though she did not know what it meant, the woman sent a photo of it to her friends in a WeChat group. They suggested that she compare the router with a photo of it on the Internet.
"I checked it carefully and found the line arrangement was different from the usual ones," the woman said.
Following a hunch, she unscrewed the router to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.
She found a digital memory card inside.
"I immediately called the police after finding the card. They came and took away the equipment," she said.
Yunfei later told Beijing Youth Daily that she works in information security, which is how she learned how to spot hidden cameras after privacy protection training.
The Airbnb Superhost was ordered to serve 20 days in detention and pay 500 Yuan (RM 305)
Police discovered that the man had been filming his guests since March.
Airbnb gave Yunfei a full refund of 1,700 yuan (RM1,036) for the three-night stay.
The company also "sincerely apologised" for the incident and removed the flat from Airbnb's listing.