Travel Tip - Avoiding A Classic Hotel Scam

Travel

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This is kinda' scary. Especially because of its simplicity. You arrive at your hotel and check in at the front desk. When checking in, you give the front desk your credit card so they can insure any incidentals will be paid for after you leave. You get to your room and you settle in. 

Then someone calls the front desk and asks for a random room number. This “random room number” happens to be YOUR room number. Your phone rings in your room. You 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 credit card information. Please re-read me your credit card number and verify the last 3 digits on the reverse side of your card."

Not thinking anything is amiss, you might give this person your information. After all, the call seems to be coming from the front desk. Nope! It’s some scam artist (why do we call these people artists, by the way?) and they’ve got designs on your cash. This is why you NEVER give out your credit card information over the phone, right? RIGHT??? 

If you ever encounter this problem on your vacation, tell the caller that you will be down at the front desk to clear up any problems. Then, visit or call the front desk and ask if there, indeed, was a problem. If there was none, inform the manager of the hotel that someone called to scam you out of your credit card information. Let them know it was a person acting like a front desk employee. Then hang up the phone and  kick your feet up, confident in the knowledge that you’re too smart to get got by a run of the mill grifter dirtbag. 

P.S. Please help spread the word by forwarding this to everyone you know. You may just help someone avoid a nasty experience and even nastier credit card bill. 

​Erik the Travel Guy