04/17/2025
BE AWARE of a hotel scam that is catching a LOT of people off guard and resulting in a stolen credit card!
The victim arrives at their hotel and checks in at the front desk. When checking in, they give the front desk their credit card (for any charges to their room) and, as usual, the attendant puts it into their system but doesn't retain the card.
The victim goes to their room and settles in. All is good. At some point during their stay, it happens...
The phone rings in their room. They answer and the person on the other end says the following:
"This is the front desk. When checking in, we came across a problem with your charge card information and we must not have entered it into our computer correctly. Would you mind re-reading that number for me?" And if the victim reads the number, they'll ask, "And expiration? ... and 3-digit verification code?" They usually stop at this but if they are brave and the victim seems super cooperative, they might keep going because they now have the credit card. They might pretend there is a verification issue and then ask for their zipcode for better credit card usage, but if they get the full address and a little more information like phone number and Social Security Number, they now have a stolen identity!
After receiving this information, they'll say, "That worked, thank you! I hope you have a great stay."
At this point, the card has been stolen. The victim won't have a clue whether it was stolen here or at any store or shop in town, since they are traveling and using their card all over the place.
This is a scam by someone who likely is not connected to the hotel and is usually not even at the hotel, and possibly not even in the same city, state, or country! If your hotel room can be called directly from the outside (most can not), then this is easy to pull off. But most just call the front desk of the hotel and ask to be transferred to a specific room number, which is either random or targeted. They sound very professional, and the victim thinks they are talking to the front desk because most hotel rooms don't show when someone is calling from the outside.
This can be more targeted and successful if the scammer or an accomplice hangs out in seating near the front desk or even stands nearby as if they are waiting for someone, and listens to the attendant tell the guest what room they are staying in. They then jot down the room number and if they can also catch the guest name, it's golden! After collecting several of these, they can send the info to the scammer or make the calls themself. Now they know what room is being occupied so they don't have to call and ask for a room number and hope it's occupied. And with the victim's name, it's more successful/believable because they can now ask, "Hello Ms. Anderson, this is the front desk..." and no one would suspect it's not since they know their name.
If you ever encounter this scenario on your travels, NEVER give your credit card over the phone and ask for their name and write it down! Tell the caller that you will swing down to the front desk later to clear up any problems. Then, when you do go down, make sure they really called you and if not, tell them the name of the person that called you.
If it seems to be a scam, be sure to report the incident to a manager. If they knew your name, this is very important because someone knows you were there, which means someone overheard the conversation (they might have video footage). This will help them be more careful with callers, be more confidential when talking to guests, or pay attention to who is nearby.
