I'm pretty involved with our local citizens policing group and our experience is that crime like this is typically localized & random, and hence hard to catch the bad guys. I'm not a member of any other Disney Boards, please repost wherever you think Disney vacationers may be staying.
A little background: Due to my old job, i've travelled more than 99% of the population. In the past 20 years, i've easily spent more than 2000 nights in hotels, with the average stay being <2 nights. In a 4 year timeframe, I spent >200 nights/year on the road, switching hotels every 1-2 business days.
AKA, If this could happen to me, this could happen to YOU!
I fell victim (then redeemed myself) to a very clever hotel scam a few hours ago. I'm currently at the Anaheim Fairfield Inn (by Marriott). At 5:30 this morning, someone called the room claiming to be at the front desk, and said that their computer systems had gotten screwed up and they needed my credit card info again. I told him I didn't want to get up, but he kept increasing the discount they'd give me, and told me I was welcome to come down to the front desk to give it to them. He said they needed it by 6am to close their books for the night. I was exhausted from walking yesterday, in deep REM sleep, had my young kids in the next bed, and just wanted to get back to sleep. With that combo, I read off my CC info to him, including my zipcode & 3 digit CVV code.
I was irritated at being woken up, so I went to the bathroom. Then I realized what I had just done, called the front desk to ask them if they had just called me. They said no, their entire system is automated, they couldn't take a CC even if they wanted to.
I immediately called our bank and cancelled the card, thank god nothing had been charged although it had only been 4 minutes since I gave out the #.
WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE: Refuse to give out the # over the phone to someone who called me. Tell them I was happy to call the front desk back and give it to them.
I'm sure I wasn't the only one they called, thieves like this typically call a few dozen folks and get as many #s as they can, then process it all. Hopefully this post prevents at least 1 person from falling victim to this.
- A guy who's now a little older, a little wiser, but hasn't had his vacation ruined at all since he clued in within minutes of doing something dumb. And now, off to DLR for the day!
A little background: Due to my old job, i've travelled more than 99% of the population. In the past 20 years, i've easily spent more than 2000 nights in hotels, with the average stay being <2 nights. In a 4 year timeframe, I spent >200 nights/year on the road, switching hotels every 1-2 business days.
AKA, If this could happen to me, this could happen to YOU!
I fell victim (then redeemed myself) to a very clever hotel scam a few hours ago. I'm currently at the Anaheim Fairfield Inn (by Marriott). At 5:30 this morning, someone called the room claiming to be at the front desk, and said that their computer systems had gotten screwed up and they needed my credit card info again. I told him I didn't want to get up, but he kept increasing the discount they'd give me, and told me I was welcome to come down to the front desk to give it to them. He said they needed it by 6am to close their books for the night. I was exhausted from walking yesterday, in deep REM sleep, had my young kids in the next bed, and just wanted to get back to sleep. With that combo, I read off my CC info to him, including my zipcode & 3 digit CVV code.
I was irritated at being woken up, so I went to the bathroom. Then I realized what I had just done, called the front desk to ask them if they had just called me. They said no, their entire system is automated, they couldn't take a CC even if they wanted to.
I immediately called our bank and cancelled the card, thank god nothing had been charged although it had only been 4 minutes since I gave out the #.
WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE: Refuse to give out the # over the phone to someone who called me. Tell them I was happy to call the front desk back and give it to them.
I'm sure I wasn't the only one they called, thieves like this typically call a few dozen folks and get as many #s as they can, then process it all. Hopefully this post prevents at least 1 person from falling victim to this.
- A guy who's now a little older, a little wiser, but hasn't had his vacation ruined at all since he clued in within minutes of doing something dumb. And now, off to DLR for the day!