Scammers are always looking for new ways to deceive people in order to obtain their credit card information.
At a hotel stay recently, I saw this sign hanging up in the lobby and in the elevators.
The scam involves someone calling your room in the middle of the night pretending to be from the front desk. They mention that your credit card didn’t go through at check in and therefore they need you credit card number immediately.
Most guests are angry at being woken up in the middle of the night and the scam artist uses this to their advantage by apologizing and saying that they have to finish up prior to the audit and the guest’s options are to give the credit card number over the phone or come down to the lobby. They even offer a discount for the inconvenience.
Most people aren’t going to want to come down at 3 am in the morning and so they reluctantly give out their credit card number which the scammers then use to charge their cards with.
I hadn’t heard of this scam before and could see how by imitating a front desk person, people could give out their credit card numbers over the phone.
Make sure and file this one under another scam not to fall for while staying at a hotel.
Have anyone of you had this scam or something similar happen while staying at a hotel?
the only way to call a hotel room is to call the hotel reception first.
a good hotel usually asks the caller for the name of the guest before transferring the call to the room..
must be a bad hotel for them not to screen the caller…
lol.
Easy solution. Hang up and call the frontt desk.
Happened to me several years ago. I almost fell for it but I said I would come down to the desk and give it to them so I saved myself. The hotel I was in could have cared less. Luckily it was not in the middle of the night. I asked the desk not to put calls through. The caller called my room back while I was at the desk and said he was my brother in-law and there was an emergency.