PROVIDENCE – R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin has issued a warning about a new scam happening in hotels and motels.
Scammers hack into hotel switchboards, dial guests directly and request their credit card information, claiming that the hotel’s computer system lost their credit card information so they need to re-enter the card number. To entice the traveler, they offer a substantial discount because of the “inconvenience.”
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“It’s really disturbing how far some people will go to steal from us,” said Kilmartin. “This new scam seeks to exploit people who save for a vacation and don’t want to give their money away. The polite voice offering a 40 or 50 percent discount, along with a phony apology for any inconvenience, only increases the chance that an honest traveler may fall victim to this deceit.”
The AG warns that no one should give credit card information out over the phone in response to this type of call. The recipients of such calls should hang up and call or visit the hotel desk directly.
Speaking of hotel scams and travel, Apple just released an iPhone app a few days ago, called Scam Detector, which has a lot of similar scams. The app exposes in detail over 350 of the most notorious scams in the world. Lots of travel scams. It is worth checking it out, if you have an iPhone. It’s kinda cool, actually. There is their info: http://www.scam-detector.com