Newport Police are warning visitors of a “hotel front desk scam” designed to charge your credit card a second time after checking into your room.
Victims of the scam arrive at their hotel and check in at the front desk with a credit card. The hotel then receives a call asking for the room number of the recently registered visitor.
The phone rings in your room. You answer and the person on the other end says: “This is the front desk. When checking in, we came across a problem with your charge card information. Please re-read me your credit card number and verify the last three digits on the reverse side.”
Since the call seems to come from the front desk, you oblige, but it’s actually a scam by someone calling from outside the hotel.
If you encounter this scenario, tell the caller you will be down to the front desk or call directly and ask if there was a problem. If there was none, inform the hotel manager that someone tried to scam your credit card information, acting as a front desk employee.
