Front deskThe “Call from the Front Desk” Scam
Yesterday, I wrote about the “Let’s have a drink” scam. Well, here’s another one that’s making the rounds, including my buddy Peter Greenberg’s newsletter yesterday and DailyFinance.com. The “Call from the front desk” scam is when thieves call your hotel room pretending to be hotel employees who are having trouble processing your credit card.

It usually takes place late at night or early in the morning when you’re not thinking straight and too tired to go downstairs to give it to them in person. Obviously, don’t give your credit card number to them over the phone. Instead, hang up and call the front desk to see if it was legitimate. If it was, then go to the front desk in person.

 

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4 Comments On "Travel Tip of the Day: The "Call from the Front Desk" Scam"
  1. Bev Cormier|

    Thank you “Johnny Jet” for all your valuable interest in keeping the traveling public safe and aware of schemes such as this and the others!

  2. Rob|

    I was fortunate enough to not fall for this scam early one morning on one of my business trips. When I phoned to verify, the front desk rather nonchalantly said “oh yes that happens sometimes”, if hotels know they have been targets surely they should offer customers the curtesy of telling them about the scam?

  3. John @ Roaming Around the World|

    I’d never heard of this before but it happened to me for the first time in London two months ago. In my scam, he claimed to be from headquarters of the hotel chain we were staying at. Thankfully I had my wits about me and did not provide the swindler my credit card info. I called the front desk to report and they didn’t even seemed phased by it. The scammer was very convincing, cunning, and provided all sorts of (fake) identification numbers, etc. Be careful!

  4. Binh|

    Thanks for the tips.

    It was really helpful.

    I will watch out for it in my vacation.

    If you don’t stay in the hotel, I really think they can do anything.

    I really don’t know why you get the call.

    Maybe the receptionist gives out your number or something.

    By the way, I clicked these ads in your site just to give some support.

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