Interesting little scam attempt (?) but not really baitable.

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Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:18 pm

I recently stayed in a hotel in Madrid for a few days, a decent 4 star hotel, part of a chain, in a good area. I'm not mentioning the name of the hotel as I do not believe that they have any direct responsibility for what I am about to relate.

Two days after I got home I received a call on one of my cellphones (not the one I'd used when I made my booking or checked in), from a Spanish cellphone number, made by a man who spoke English, so badly I barely understood him, so I switched to Spanish which was clearly his native language, and which he spoke with an Argentinian accent (could also have been Uruguay or Chile).

He told me that he was calling from the hotel 'x' where I'd stayed and that they had found the laptop I'd lost during my stay. Fine, except that I hadn't taken a laptop with me and my laptop had been, and still was, at home the whole time.

As I was busy I told him he'd made a mistake and thanked him for his time but he was quite insistent that he had my 'almost new Sony Vaio laptop' and needed to confirm my address to send it back to me.

Later I thought about it and realised that the number he'd called me on was one he could only have found on a label on my suitcase in the room, so it must have been via a member of the hotel staff.

I called the hotel and explained that my suspicions were aroused because not only did I not lose a laptop, but also because, had a member of their staff contacted me, they would have done so through the hotel switchboard, and of course they confirmed this. They also said they didn't have any male employees who had the accent I mentioned.

I meant to call back the man's number to try to see where this was leading, but unfortunately had accidentally deleted it from my cellphone's call list.

I wondered how this scam would work and can only assume that he would have expected me to think this was an opportunity to get a nice Sony Vaio laptop, would have asked me to send money for the delivery fee and that would have been the last I'd have seen of my money.

Has anyone heard of anything similar?

P.S. Anyone want an almost new Sony Vaio laptop cheap. Only slightly dented where it fell off the back of the lorry!!!!

Fixed coding tags -- JMR

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:43 am

Sure. I'm always in need of another laptop or more computer equipment. What I currently need is a second flatscreen monitor to hook up to my laptop, because I am tired of using a damn CRT as my second external monitor.

And for those who can't keep count...yes, I have three monitors. Or rather, two external monitors plus my laptop screen.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:33 am

I guess that you would have been stung for shipping fees, but of course you could have pointed the lad to a proper (i.e. a baiter run) shipping service that you 'always' use. Pity that they had your real life details.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

That sounds like a finickity one... I can't understand why a member of staff would do that. Do you remember your cleaner, bellboy or anything like that? They're the only people I can imagine having access to your luggage tags.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:49 pm

^^^^
More likely someone is bribing hotel staff to collect phone numbers.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

If your phone number was on the luggage label it could have been read at the airport or during transfers.
Just a thought

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:50 pm

^^ But if that were the case, the odds of them guessing the correct hotel are extremely low.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Sometimes destinations are put on luggage labels too.

i never put my home address on a luggage label in case someone pays a visit to my home thinking its empty while I'm on holiday, which is unlikely but you never know.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:25 pm

Nope, the label only had my telephone numbers. No addresses, no company name, no hotel name.

Interesting little scam attempt (?) but not really baitable.	View next topic View previous topic