Just found out about a clever hotel scam that’s been making the rounds.
So, picture this: you check in at a hotel like usual, hand over your credit card for any room charges, and head up to settle into your room.
Then, the hotel phone rings. The person on the other end says, *‘Hi, this is the front desk. We’re having an issue with your card information from check-in. Can you please re-read your card number and the last three digits on the back?’
Seems innocent, right? But it’s actually a scam! Someone from outside the hotel calls, asks for a random room number, and pretends to be the front desk to get your card info.
If you ever get a call like this, tell them you’ll go down to the front desk yourself to sort it out. Then, actually head down and ask if there’s an issue.
If there’s no issue, let the manager know about the scam attempt!
/u/power_of_7 - Just a heads-up to new members of this forum:
New users, be careful:
Because you posted here, you might start getting private messages from scammers who claim to know a ‘professional hacker’ or ‘recovery expert’ who can help you get your money back for a small fee. We call these ‘RECOVERY SCAMMERS’ here. Never trust private messages; advice should be shared openly in the comments for the whole community to see. If you accept help privately, you’re on your own.
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No posting contact info (like last names or phone numbers), and keep it civil (no name-calling). Don’t ask for ‘personal army’ help or post about ‘scamming the scammer.’ A full list of rules is on the sidebar or click here for details.
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Bernie said:
Never, ever give out credit card info on a phone call. Hard rule for me.
It’s a sad world we live in. For me, if I get any unexpected call, I won’t confirm or deny anything until I call back myself. Can’t be too careful nowadays.
Yep, don’t read your card info over the phone. I used to work at a place that took orders, and people would get so upset when I refused to take their card details over the phone. Protecting them didn’t seem to matter to some!
@ShirleyTurner
Same here. I work at a place where people regularly try to give us card details over the phone or even by email! It amazes me every time.
This isn’t actually new. In 2018, we got woken up at 2 AM with the same thing. My partner yelled, ‘I will NOT!’ and hung up. Still couldn’t sleep after that though!
I work at a hotel, and this scam has been around for ages. No employee should ever ask for your card details over the phone; we already have it on file. At my place, we make sure the caller knows the guest’s name before we transfer calls to a room.
New people still fall for it though. This is the first time I’ve seen this scam, and I’m on this forum every day. Definitely more interesting than the usual ‘is this job offer a scam?’ posts.
