Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Hotwire fraud?




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alanw
Aug 28, 03, 5:32 am
I posted yesterday that I was having trouble getting PriceLine to accept my credit card since my address was outside the US. They kept saying it was declined due to bank transaction failure. So I tried Hotwire.

After accepting a price, I put in all my personal/CC information and is said...Declined due to our online security policy. Great. I sent them a mail asking WHY their online security policy wouldn't allow me to use my Visa from one of the largest banks in Spain and got back a clueless form letter that just repeated my question back to me in the form of an answer.

So today I'm in a shop buying a new pair of shoes, used the same card, and it's declined. Shouldn't be...there was like 400EUR available. So I went to my online statement and what do you know...

TVISA HOTWIRE - SALES 27/08/03 27/08/03 €273,91-


Those ****ers charged my card, told me they were unable, and didn't give me a hotel.

I tried calling their number but just get a recording saying that 866 numbers aren't reachable outside the US. I've sent them an email wanting to know what the hell is going on. I suspect it's a glitch in their software and not intentional fraud but still it pissed me off.




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-alan in sitges, home of Si-Do (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/003150.html)


jabez
Aug 28, 03, 6:34 am
It looks like your last sentence answered your own question,but venting is okay.

alanw
Aug 28, 03, 8:16 am
Just got a call from someone at Hotwire who was apologetic. It seems they run the transaction past their "security detection" doohickey after they get authorization from the bank. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/rolleyes.gif

My bank returned a code they didn't recognize when they tried to verify the 3-digit security code on the card, so they dumped the whole thing.

They're issuing a credit today.

She said they don't have a policy problem with international cards but this kind of thing happens pretty often.

Incidentally, looking back on my statement I see that PriceLine charged 1€ to my card three times yesterday.

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-alan in sitges, home of Si-Do (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/003150.html)




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