INDIANAPOLIS – Consumer watchdogs want you to be on the lookout for a couple of common scams targeting people staying in hotels while on vacation.
One of them involves crooks walking through hotels, slipping flyers under the doors for a nearby pizza place, or fake room service menu. According to Scamicide, when you call the number, the person on the line will take your order along with your credit card information. However, there’s no pizza place or room service. It’s just a crook who’s going to use your credit card information as fast as they can before you realize there’s no pizza coming.
The experts at Scamicide say a good rule to follow is never to trust a flyer under the door. You can also Google the name of the pizza place to see if it’s real and the phone number matches. As for room service, you should be able to call them with a button on your room phone without needing a flyer slid under your door.
Another scam you don’t want to sleep on involves a phony call from the front desk of your hotel. This usually involves someone calling your room at 3 a.m. when you’re likely to be in a deep sleep. The caller says there has been a problem with your room reservation or payment information and they need to run your credit card again. Of course, the bad guys in this case are trying to catch you while you’re half asleep so you will pull out your wallet and simply read off your credit card information.
According to the watchdogs at Trend Micro, the best way to handle that call is to hang up and call the front desk directly. There’s a good bet they won’t know what you’re talking about. You can also tell the caller that you will come down to the front desk at a reasonable hour and handle it in person. Either way, it’s never a good idea to read credit card or other sensitive information to someone who contacted you.
