Hotel Check-In Credit Card Scam

An article regarding a hotel check-in credit card scam.

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Beyond the scamming aspect the comments about getting one out of your room, ostensibly to rob you or worse, deserve special mention.

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Speaking of hotel scams
I recall a trip to Thailand a few years ago when I could not open the in room safe with the combination that I punched in. I was sure that I knew the code, but it just wouldn’t open up.

I called the front desk who sent over a very pleasant gentleman with a few tools which I have never seen before and in less than a minute after he attached the tools to the door, he opened it up.

Amazing.

I did not notice any item stolen, but who knows if some of the cash was taken from the wallet left inside as I did not recall how much I had in there.

Just as the guy was leaving, with the safe door open I asked if I should change the combination after all, his opening of the safe would have invalidated my code.

He replied, “the way I opened it means the code you punched in originally is now invalid so you need to punch in a new code”.

As he walked out of the room towards the lift, I followed him, gave him a 100 Baht note (circa $5 I think) and asked “ are you saying that there is a way a person can open the safe with these tools, take something out and then close the safe whilst keeping the guest’s punched in code unaffected”?

He replied “it’s not right and I don’t do that, but it’s dead easy to do”.

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Being in the industry, I have never heard of this or seen industry reports it has occurred (this is the first time and coincidentally it happen to a ‘safety expert’ and also coincidentally, it happens so it can be filmed). I wonder if this about self promotion. The bio of the ‘safety expert’ is interesting and gives some clues.

It might be like the ‘check the back seat of you car before entering to ensure there aren’t carjackers hiding there’ which went viral around internet many years ago.

A job of security is to be paranoid, not trusting, and to instill paranoia in others to keep them safe. I have known people who worked ‘for government’ and understand those who work in a particular world - at least to a point.

Not to say this is all genuine rather than customer building, but it is plausible.

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