? Fraudulent booking

[scaredeycat]

Received an email yesterday confirming my booking at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore later this month.
I'm not going to Singapore. I've stayed at that hotel twice, but this month I'm staying home. Thought the situation rather odd, so gave the hotel a call. Yes, they have a booking, which is actually in my wife's name (and no, she's not planning on going to Singapore either). Asked for a booking reference and was told it was made through Flight Centre, in Sydney (we're in Hobart). Have booked through Flight Centre in the past, but our last contact with them was probably at least 5 years ago. Rang the Sydney number, who are looking into the matter - turns out that the booking was made via a subsidiary in Melbourne called Cruiseabout.
This has a very bad smell. The man from Melbourne will look into it further, but I suspect someone has stolen our identity. I've checked our credit cards and nothing has been charged against them (yet).
Does anyone think I should be doing anything further at this stage?

 

[TomVexille]

That definitely smells fishy. I would keep a very close eye on your credit cards and other accounts.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Cancel the booking!

 

[Hvr]

Might be a good idea to talk to your credit card company advising them that you have concerns about a particular company who may be trying to charge your card.

They can put an alert on it and maybe even refuse to allow them to charge your card. Of course if you want to use them for a legitimate booking in the future you will need to advise them prior to making the booking.

 

[tuapekastar]

Was your CC number provided in the booking? Or did the hotel have it on record? If it was provided (esp. With correct expiry dates, given you haven't used FC for 5 years), then things certainly do look amiss. Please let us know the outcome.

 

[scaredeycat]

At the moment I'm still waiting for Cruiseabout to get back to me. The person who deals with these matters is apparently off today.

 

[robd]

At the moment I'm still waiting for Cruiseabout to get back to me. The person who deals with these matters is apparently off today.

I'm not buying that story. Cruiseabout is Flight Centre (T/A). They only have one person dealing with financial matters?

 

[phily]

At the moment I'm still waiting for Cruiseabout to get back to me. The person who deals with these matters is apparently off today.

Haha. They're off today - to Singapore...

 

[amaroo]

Start sending emails. On the phone - you're on your own!

 

[scaredeycat]

Start sending emails. On the phone - you're on your own!

Documentation would be useful, wouldn't it? In any case it's a pain making multiple phone calls and being placed on hold.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Received an email yesterday confirming my booking at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore later this month. I'm not going to Singapore. I've stayed at that hotel twice, but this month I'm staying home. Thought the situation rather odd, so gave the hotel a call. Yes, they have a booking, which is actually in my wife's name (and no, she's not planning on going to Singapore either).

Asked for a booking reference and was told it was made through Flight Centre, in Sydney (we're in Hobart). Have booked through Flight Centre in the past, but our last contact with them was probably at least 5 years ago. Rang the Sydney number, who are looking into the matter - turns out that the booking was made via a subsidiary in Melbourne called Cruiseabout.

This has a very bad smell. The man from Melbourne will look into it further, but I suspect someone has stolen our identity. I've checked our credit cards and nothing has been charged against them (yet). Does anyone think I should be doing anything further at this stage?

If you've never booked through Cruiseabout before they may share access to the FC customer database details from the company database but I don't know whether that would include storing your credit card details.

When you stayed at the Pan Pac before how was the booking done - on Pan Pac website, through FC or some other means?

I'd be calling the hotel direct & asking what date the reservation was made, how it was made eg via Infinity Hols or direct with the hotel website etc, the consultant name at Cruiseabout & what the cancellation policy is eg 1800 cancel on day of arrival & most importantly the credit card nbr & expiry date. I you haven't dealt with FC for 5 years they wouldn't have your up-to-date credit card details however the Pan Pac might if you last stay was only recent.

I would speak to the manager of Cruiseabout & ask them their procedure for hotel bookings & see if that matches up with how the booking was actually made.

Furthermore I would definitely contact your credit card provider & give them a heads up as they can probably flag your account so they keep a close eye on upcoming charges.

Might be a good idea to talk to your credit card company advising them that you have concerns about a particular company who may be trying to charge your card.

They can put an alert on it and maybe even refuse to allow them to charge your card. Of course if you want to use them for a legitimate booking in the future you will need to advise them prior to making the booking.

Who is going to be the merchant you are stopping - Pan Pacific Singapore or Flight Centre and/or Cruiseabout as I'm guessing they may have separate merchant numbers. Depending what you're purchasing some T/A's may use the airline merchant number so the airline wears the merchant fees (eg Expedia Brazil) however other times the TA themselves use their own merchant nbr eg Webjet, however they not only charge their own service fee but pass on the airline cc fee despite the airline not being the merchant.

I haven't done a booking through Flight Centre personally although I gather from what I've read on AFF from people who have dealt with them is that when you book accommodation, FC generally only book hotels via their in-house wholesaler Infinity Holidays so it's all pre-paid & they can deduct their commission at source rather than making a hotel booking direct where the guest pays the hotel direct & the hotel subsequently sends a commission cheque if they feel like it weeks after the event.

I think it's unusual that FC would make a reservation direct with the hotel. They may have booked through Infinity & because you've stayed at the Pan Pac before, the hotel has you details on file hence the email from them reminding you of your upcoming stay despite not having booked directly with them.

That would be like a hotel emailing you when you've booked through a third party site like www.priceline.com.

 

[scaredeycat]

Thanks for the advice. I thought it was very odd that the booking was through Flight Centre / Infinity holidays as we haven't had anything to do with FC for several years. Our last stay at the Pan Pac was Jan 2013, and I made the booking myself via their website. I'm not sure whether I should be alerting all our card providers at this stage (don't want the hassle of cancelling them all!), but I'll definitely ask Cruiseabout if a credit card was used for the booking that was made.
Leaves a bad taste in the mouth, doesn't it?

 

[DC3]

At the moment I'm still waiting for Cruiseabout to get back to me. The person who deals with these matters is apparently off today.

And maybe off tomorrow as well.

I would start an email trail to Flight Centre/Cruiseabout. And cancel the booking seeing as how you won't be staying there.

This is not good news at all. I hope that you can get to the bottom of it.

 

[RooFlyer]

I had a similar thing happen to me last year.

I got an e-mail from Radisson Blu Edwardian in London, confirming a pre-paid reservation and offer of 2,000 bonus points. Had never stayed there (or any Radisson Hotel for over 2 years), so I called the hotel. They said it was done through an agent ‘Redfern Travel’ (of the UK) and the ‘company’ was 'crownprotb'.

After I followed up with an e-mail, the hotel replied with apologies and that it was an 'administrative error'. I queried how both my name and e-mail address came together as an 'administrative error', but got no reply and I let it drop. No cc impact etc.

 

[cmon0005]

When I've booked trough FC in the past for hotels and they look up details from past booking they often have to confirm my phone number as there are a few people in the database with the same name..could be a simple admin error in these high volume type TA's i'd imagine there would be a high level of admin errors.

 

[UP4014]

If you can remember, cancel the card you used previously to book through F/C and the hotel. Just do it and get a new card, save the hassle I just experienced.

I just (2 weeks ago) had my card info stolen form somewhere, a small $1.19 transaction went through on Expedia then suddenly a deluge of aeroflot flights booked on Expedia.

Lucky for me I've never booked anything through Expedia but it took two weeks to get my money back and it was a debit card which made it more important of course.

Also lucky was I had a quick response from the card security centre stopping any further transactions, within 15 mins of it happening.

I've gone back to drawing out cash for my needs each week rather than using it at service stations and restaurants all over town.

Matt

 

[scaredeycat]

Good news. Mrs Cat has been in touch with Cruiseabout (I've been at work) - it seems that they booked the hotel room for a couple with the same christian names and a similar surname (?skaredeycat) and whoever processed the booking at the hotel end assumed it was us. I'll contact the agency tomorrow to make sure it's sorted, then contact Pan Pac as well.
Thank you for everyone's advice.


If it's worth doing, it's worth doing to excess

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I just (2 weeks ago) had my card info stolen form somewhere, a small $1.19 transaction went through on Expedia then suddenly a deluge of aeroflot flights booked on Expedia.

Lucky for me I've never booked anything through Expedia but it took two weeks to get my money back and it was a debit card which made it more important of course.

Also lucky was I had a quick response from the card security centre stopping any further transactions, within 15 mins of it happening.

I've gone back to drawing out cash for my needs each week rather than using it at service stations and restaurants all over town.

Matt

Thieves are getting very sophisticated these days because you can just be standing in close proximity to someone with a briefcase who has the gizmo that scans cards & steals all your precious info although apparently they have to have a steady surface to rest the reader on.

I was chatting to a guy recently who does contract security work & he showed me the cards in his wallet which were all in protective Korjo sleeves which shields them against the evil devices.

 

[JohnK]

A case of mistaken identity?

 

[themanfromoz]

I had a somewhat similar issue with another Flight Centre aligned company - Stage and Screen Travel.
Accommodation in a NZ hotel had been deducted from my personal credit card.
I neither made the booking (a work one and not personal) nor had my personal CC been used on any previous work bookings. Just one personal one to celebrate my 50th a few years ago.
SST couldn't explain it.