Hotel scam targets credit-card users

[eeyore]

Found this on the web recently - thought some of you might find it useful:

 

Hotel scam targets credit-card users

Marketwatch - February 14, 2007 10:48 AM ET

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- If you're staying in a hotel and receive a "helpful" call from the concierge regarding your credit card, beware. Money magazine reports on a new scam making the rounds, and it targets trusting travelers.

 

The premise is simple enough. During your stay at a hotel, you receive a call from someone claming to be from the front desk. "There was a problem with your credit card," they'll say. "Can you please verify your card number and billing address?"

 

But wait -- won't you know if the call is not coming from within the hotel? Not if the fraudster called the front desk first, asking to speak with someone in a specific room or with a common last name such as Johnson. If the front desk successfully transfers the call to your room, it will look like it came from within the hotel. In this case, most travelers are inclined to provide the information. That information can be enough for a scammer to make illegal charges using your credit card.

 

The American Hotel and Lodging Association says that most hotels won't ask you to verify such information over the phone, so if you get such a call, don't fall for it. Instead, tell the caller you'll verify the information in person at the front desk. Follow up at the desk yourself, and you'll likely find out it was a scam. If there indeed was a problem with your card, you can handle it at the desk and be sure your credit-card information is safe.

[+ deej]

This struck me as a hoax or a manufactured story, so I went looking.

 

Buried way deep at marketwatch.com is this story (which you've quoted):

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/hotel-scam-targets-credit-card-users/story.aspx?guid=%7BEF31CC3C%2D4B4D%2D43BB%2D95D5%2D2366D7785025%7D

 

This is an op-Ed column. It is poorly written. It is, in fact, written to use the most sensationalistic terms it can. (And it's not particularly successful at that.) Apparently the author hasn't stayed at a hotel in the last 15 years.

 

The lead in talks about calls from the concierge, and then it dissolves to calls from the front desk.

 

The concierge is not the same as the front desk. The concierge (in hotels that have them) generally do not handle your credit card.

 

The one unit of truth in the story is that hotels will generally ask you to come to the desk to resolve issues. (The better joints will add "at your convenience".) If you're ever asked otherwise, go to the desk to handle it.

 

This is media hype. But I was just reading another article at snopes.com that classified a hoax as "possible but unlikely" and this falls in the same category.

 

Bottom line: when there's an issue with a hotel, handle it in person at the front desk. And take names.