New Scam Beware

There is apparently a new hotel scam moving through the industry. The Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) is alerting people to a new way to separate hotel clients from their credit card information. An ARTA travel agent was staying at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in the Denver area recently.

She was awakened by a phone call late at night by a man claiming that he was calling from the front desk. The caller apologized for the midnight call and said the office was trying to transmit the credit cards of the guests who had checked in that day to their central office. He said the numbers had to be in by 1 a.m. He then asked for the guest’s credit card details. She said no. The caller said they could send someone up to the room to get the details and again the agent refused, ending the call and hearing nothing further.

The next day the travel agent was told by the front desk that although the call probably did originate from somewhere in the hotel, it was a scam by people trying to steal credit card numbers, and that several other hotels had reported similar incidents.

So, take that information and keep your credit card numbers safe. It is easy to be scammed when the scam seems logical.