Scam Alert

Travelers have reported this inventive scam, so I’m passing it along to you. Beware –

You check into your hotel, give the front desk your credit card and they run it through their system for any charges you may add to your room.

You go to your room and settle in. All good.

Then someone calls the hotel and asks for room 620, which happens to be your room, and they are connected. The person on the other end identifies themselves as so-and-so from the front desk. They tell you there was a problem with your charge account info and ask you to read your credit card number back to them and verify the security code on the back.

You think the call is legit, it came from the front desk, right? But sirens should be going off in your head. Some shrewd scam artist has been calling hotels, asking for random room numbers and getting credit card information from unsuspecting travelers. Bingo, they’re off running up charges to your account.

What to do: tell the caller you’ll be right down to the front desk to clear up the problem. Then hustle yourself to the front desk and check it out. Ask for the manager and let them know what happened. They may be as bewildered as you are, but at least your credit card hasn’t been compromised.