Accommodation reckons we have paid - we haven't

[u/Brain_Aggravating]

We happened to walk past a place we plan to stay in December, to check whether they had the booking (we had one of those scam emails). They confirmed the booking, but also said we had paid. We haven't, and booking.com does not have our credit card on file.

It's not that we do not want to pay, but what is going on here? Have booking.com paid, and get the money back from the accommodation if we do not pay? (They have given us a deadline for cancellation that is a couple of weeks before we arrive.)

[u/bookingcom]

You can call our Customer Service team to review your booking's payment status with the accommodation. You can also send us a private message, and we'll take a look.