First it was the mail scam, then the Internet scam, and the phone scam; now it seems that scammers are targeting you while you’re away from home too. According to a report in an Albuquerque newspaper, guests at some hotels in New Mexico and California have reported getting in-room phone calls from a man who claims he is the hotel manager and that the guest’s credit card number needs to be verified. The paper interviewed a hotel guest who said he gave his credit card information over the phone to the alleged “hotel manager,” but got suspicious after he hung up.
When the guest called the front desk and asked to speak to the manager, using the name given by the caller he was told there wasn’t anybody by that name employed by the hotel. SCAM! According to the paper, the guest quickly called his credit card company, and it canceled a $2,000 transaction that the scammer was trying to get through.
My heart sunk when I heard that scammers have now figured out a way to infiltrate the “security” of hotel operators. But, according to the president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association this scam has been going on for a long time and guests just need to take precautions in order to avoid becoming a scammers next victim: “My advice to guests is, like anywhere else, don’t give out such information on the phone.” The Hotel and Lodging president also added that hotels “make it a policy not to ask you to give your credit card number again over the phone. Rather, they will ask you to come down to the desk.”
So, how did the scammer get connected to the guest at the Albuquerque hotel? According to the paper, the hotel’s desk clerk received a call from a man asking to be put through to a guest by the name of Wilson. “Apparently he had a nice professional-sounding voice,” said the hotel’s general manager. When the clerk said there was no guest by that name, the caller asked to speak to Smith, claiming Wilson and Smith were working together. The hotel desk clerk then rang the room of the only Smith staying at the property.
Which means if you have a common name be on guard. In most cases hotel switchboards won’t put callers through to a guest’s room unless they can say who’s in it. A scammer may call a hotel and ask for “Mr. Smith,” or “Ms. Brown,” figuring the odds of getting someone with that name is high. The best tip to follow is the one I employ no matter where or when I get a call from someone asking me to verify my credit card information—simply hang up.