Gargoyle

10 owners, managers and employees of seven hotels in the Joliet, Illinois area were arrested Thursday for stealing and selling credit card numbers from guests. Among those arrested were the owners of a Holiday Inn Express and two Super 8 motels.

More that 10,000 credit card numbers were sold over the past six years. They were sold in batches of 10 for between $100 and $5,000 per batch; typical charges rung up on each stolen card were between $500 and $15,000.

It's a very easy scheme which can be (and most certainly has been) replicated around the country/world, so it's one more thing to be aware of when travelling.

the_nomad

Well, at least they won't have to be bussed that far to their new location - Joliet Correctional facility.

Global_Hi_Flyer

Had my identity and credit card numbers stolen twice in NYC at hotels. It is why I am very reluctant to allow them to write down anything from picture ID when checking-in.... despite their bleeting that the local town laws (or federal agencies) require them to take down ID numbers.

Guest beware.

Hope they send 'em to a Fed pen instead of just up the street at Joliet...

Taiwaned

If the hotel owners were involved how can we protect ourselves?

Pay cash? Then we miss out on the points we can earn on our credit cards.
Don't allow the hotel's to see our credit card? How do you pay then?

Be careful sure but l would look at it as a unusual situation and that most other hotel owners are not criminals.

GUWonder

A good part of credit card theft happens by thieves swiping the stuff from hotels/hotel guests.

Viajera

I saw it on the news last night. Does anybody know if there were Hampton Inns involved? I'm going to stay at one there and I don't like this.

peachfront

I don't see how you can stop this through awareness, if you stay in hotels, sooner or later this happens, doesn't it? I use "zero liability" cards and complain when I see unauthorized charges, it's about all you can do. One hotel clerk in Arizona was so bold that she thought she could get away with using a friend's information to buy $500 gift certificates at another hotel in Vegas -- little did she know that the person staying in her modest [well known low cost chain motel] was a high roller at the casino resort where she tried to buy the gift cards. Her partner in crime was arrested when he went to pick up the goodies. My friend noticed the charges on his online "unbilled activity" because he checks that stuff every day, so he phoned both credit card company and the resort in question, and they set up the sting by saying that someone had to pick up the gift cards in person .

Even if you pay cash, they swipe your card for B.S. reasons in many places. I had a case where the hotel tried to bill me for bogus "damage." I had to get my host involved to put a stop to the nonsense. Hotels where you don't have a host? Hotels where no one gambles or is a VIP at all? I don't know what else you would do except file a police report and complain to your congresscritter.

hangpilot

You still need a credit card on file for "incidentals" though.....?

So don't have your social # on your drivers license, and make sure you've got a zero liability credit card!

Check your statements carefully, and pull a credit report on yourself occasionally.

TravellingMan

Carry a low limit credit card for these hotels. The best is if the address on your DL is not your latest residential address. They can copy it for all they want, but the credit card will decline if the address does not match when they try some tricks.

Gargoyle

Since the busts were well publicized, if there is anything else going on near Joliet they'll lie low for a while.

One time a client of mine, a very extravagant type, had a lavish dinner in Rome. Over the following two to three weeks about $80k was chaged to his card for meals at that restaurant. AMEX flagged it and cancelled the charges, supposedly when they contacted the restaurant the owner blamed a waiter who he said he had since fired. Yeah, right. I hope at the very least AMEX dumped that restaurant from card acceptance.

SirFlysALot

It isn't only hotels. Any on line purchase where they have that validation code entered is suspect also.

What made the Joliet scam work better than most was that they aged the cards. They took the information but didn't use it for a year. That made it almost impossible to track down.

Cholula

This topic is perhaps better suited for TravelBuzz so I'm going to transfer it there.
Please follow at it's new location.

Thanks.

___________________

Cholula
Travel Safety/Security Forum Moderator