Scott’s Blog Experience

This comes right out from the bowls of crime at its worst.

You check into a hotel, and use your credit card to secure the room, and charges. Usually your CC is not charged until AFTER you check out. Typical right?

Imagine you check in, go to your room, and 5 minutes later you get a call from the front desk telling you your CC is not working. Heh? They ask you for the number again just to make sure, you give them the number, and they politely say “Thank you”.

5 minutes later, they call you again, and say “We are terribly sorry, however your CC is not going thru”. They explain, that they need a CC to secure room charges. They explain, “If you have another CC we can secure the room that way, we won’t charge it, until you get things cleared up with your other card”. You give them your other CC number.

You just got scamed.

This actually happened as of a few days ago to a friend of mine. Luckily they were suspicious, and went to ask the front desk what was going on. The Front Desk had no idea. In a matter of minutes both cards were used to try and wire money from Western Union.

After my friend called and imediatley canceled both cards, CC security traced the call to Western Union. Western Union then traced the original call to Buffalo NY. My friend was checked into a hotel in Cincinatti Ohio.

The scam works this way. Hackers get into a Credit Card swipe machine and start tracking names of cards that get swiped. They then (having a name, but no card number) call the hotel and ask to be connected to that persons room. They then pose as the Front Desk.

Tip: Do not turn in your Hotel Electronic Room Keys, they have all your info on them and are easily swiped to get info. And never give your CC number over the phone unless you are absolutely sure who you are talking to.