Be very careful when booking through AirBnB

I made a booking through AirBnB for December 2020 which was confirmed. I opted to make payment in two instalments, one now and one in Nov. When I went online to make the deposit payment, I was astonished to receive a receipt for the deposit which had just been taken off one of my credit cards, without my approval, or authorisation. Then to make matters worse, the second payment (for the full amount) was taken off the same card, a day later.

I immediately emailed them to complain as firstly they had taken the payment off a credit card not meant for this purpose and secondly, taken the full amount when I had specified that I wanted to pay in two instalments.

I have not received any kind of reply from them, although I have now emailed them twice. I have cancelled this booking online and with the owner and today have only received one reversal of one of the payments.

I am very anxious to know how they can take payment without authorisation and also where they got the credit card details to take the money from as I had not provided any.

At the very least, I expected an email to explain this to me, but nothing.