slidergirl

OK. I'm not a frequent guest anymore. But, I had over 180,000 points in my account. I had thought about getting a room down in Orlando the end of May prior to an early morning flight. When I started looking, a "reservation" popped for a Fairfield Inn somewhere in New Jersey for 37,500 points, to start the next night!!! Nope, not me!!! I cancel it (it let me do that), and then email Bonvoy with the fraudulent activity. Yesterday, I got an email back, that things were restored. Fine.
Today, I go into my account again. NOW, someone is actually STAYING at the Fairfield Inn BWI - checked in yesterday for 2 nights!!! Again, NOT me. I call the Customer Service line. The agent I get quizzes me and yes, it's not me at the hotel. She calls the hotel - tells them what has happened. The hotel tries to call the room, but no one answers. They go back and forth for about 30 minutes while I'm still on the line. So, I go into my account and look at activity - there are TWO MORE RESERVATIONS, one in Atlanta the end of April and one in New York starting tomorrow!!! WTHF????? So, the agent asks if I got confirmations of any of these - I say no. She asks if my email address is "[email protected]" - not even close... But, my email is correct on my profile, so who knows where that one came from. The agent at least puts back all the points stolen. She helps me add a 4-digit security code and add another security question. I had changed my password this morning again, so that should be OK.

A couple of things really bother me. 1. Apparently this person was able to check into 2 of the hotels under my name - how did a Front Desk Agent not ask for and look an ID? Or, did the fraudster maybe put in a comment that they would be arriving first and could check in? 2. where can you ask for confirmations to go to another address than your profile address?

Let me get on the "compensation bandwagon" - Should I be outraged enough that I should ask for more points for their lack of security? In a perfect world, I'd like enough comp points for 4 nights @ 60,000/night to make up for 4 fraudulent reservations they let through. Or, should I ask for a free night at a hotel I really want to stay at? Or, do I just suck it up and be happy that I got my points back?

I'm a Front Desk Manager where I work now, and worked at a Waldorf Astoria and a St. Regis in Guest Services before. I know fraud happens. I've had reservations where it lists 2 names on it and there is a note that says the secondary name is arriving first. It never occurred to me that it could be someone hacking an account and doing that trick. Now the it's happened to me, I'm thinking that is a hole that needs to be closed. I know I'll come up with a way to do that at my place! It just pisses me off that it was me this time,.

MSPeconomist

slidergirl

Nope. My email account hasn't been compromised. I change that password frequently. If they deleted the emails, they would have had to empty the trash box and it's still containing stuff from months ago. Plus, the agent said the email address was that "kaitlinxxx" one, not mine. I'm wondering if Marriott's reservation page as a space where you can enter a different email address to send information on a reservation?

I wish that the Fairfield would have security or the local police to knock on that room door. RIGHT NOW. But, the agent said that the hotel will "deal with it" when she checks out. I had a scammer at our hotel last summer - I had Security at that door right away when we found out what he was doing. Due to some stupidity of the AM FD Supervisor, we were out about $600 on that case.

TechnoTourist

You can specify an alternate email address and when making the reservation. I do this when booking rooms for colleagues/family.

myperks

nachosdelux

a person could easily get a fake ID to fool the desk clerk at check-in. you could always call the local police yourself, at least they could go to the room and positively ID the person using your info.

TechnoTourist

My bad, post corrected

genotonda

Haven't checked lately, but I know when I've made reservations in the past, in my wife's account, and put in an alternate email, it still sent her one as well.

genotonda

Hasn't there been other threads similar to this, and the issue was either the names or the Bonvoy numbers were very similar? It ended up not being fraud, but basically a computer error.

It would seem pretty unlikely that the person would be able to continuously get into the account.

myperks

eyeball1

I think the chance of a true scammer stopping by the hotel desk to check out will be slim to none.

DFWsakp

I am not sure why any compensation is due? You got your points back and it's not like every Marriott account is breached.
In all probability, your email could have been breached too and the scammer simply deleted the email that was related to the booking.
OR
Maybe your Password was too easy?
OR
Maybe you shared or wrote it down somewhere?
There are endless possibilities and I don't think Marriott should be responsible for such one off issues which could be due to any reason

slidergirl

I guess I should have added a snarky face. I figured when I quoted "compensation bandwagon" those intelligent enough would know. I hate people who phish for freebies at my hotel. People on this site have asked for compensation for the dumbest things. I was joking. Lighten up Louis.

My email was NOT breached. That password is changed frequently and the reservations were made during changes, so they would have to have some sort of mechanism to track the password change before they tried to book again. And, they'd have to get through my VPN and 2-part verification.
My password is not easy.
My passwords aren't written down.
I don't have anyone to share the password with.


Another Marriott cheerleader, I guess... I pray it never happens to you.

margarita girl

jeanie

I have had two different hotel programs hacked before. IHG did nothing to resolve the issue. Years worth of points were stolen. Even though I submitted a police report regarding a larger identity theft, IHG didn't care. So I stopped staying there.

Hilton restored my points and changed my account number.

In this situation, I would recommend that you get a new account number from Bonvoy.

Don't hold your breath on compensation. Just be glad that a phone call got your points back! You didn't mention having to submit a police report. By comparison, if a credit card was used fraudulently, banks don't give you free money for your inconvenience. They make sure your balance is correct, and change your account number. Expect the same from Marriott.

Victims of fraud don't get free stuff as compensation just for being a victim. It doesn't work that way.