People visit hotels for many reasons; vacation, business trips, family visits, and the list goes on. While most hope that their stay will go smoothly, sometimes things go horribly wrong. One TikTok influencer is calling out an ongoing room service scam that has viewers shocked. For one family, what seemed like simply ordering room service turned into over $6,000 charges from someone posing as hotel staff over the phone. Ali Koca took to TikTok to explain how this scam works and the best way for people to avoid being victims to it.
Ali Koca’s TikTok page is all about binge-worthy content.
From telling stories of Tinder dates gone wrong to spilling the tea on some scandalous Karen news, TikTok influencer Ali Koca, AKA @huskymuscles, has the go-to channel for juicy stories. With 1.8 million followers and 80 million likes, people trust Koca to tell them important current events (with sprinkles of suspense) and some unique info that they wouldn’t otherwise hear about.
He begins the video with a warning
Whether people go to a five star hotel or a budget friendly one, Koca recommends that everyone is very careful when they’re making hotel purchases. He begins this haunting story by explaining that “This family was staying in a hotel, and they decided to order room service using the father’s debit card.” They used what appeared to be the food service menu, and called the number it listed.
The problem began with the menu.
Koca explained that the family waited an “hour and a half” after ordering room service, but the food never came. So, they called the front desk — and hotel staff had no record of their order. The menu the family ordered from was dropped under the door and only appeared to be associated with the hotel, but it wasn’t.
Suddenly, money was missing.
After learning that the debit card was never charged for hotel room service, the father logged onto his laptop to check his bank account. To his horror, not only were there charges, but for what was supposed to be a family dinner, he was charged over $6,000.
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Scammers are tampering with hotel menus.
While the menu that the family ordered from looks exactly like the official hotel’s, the phone number was tampered with. Scammers created fake contact information for people to call into and provide their debit card information.
Koca says the key is to call the front desk before ordering.
This scam can likely be avoided by simply calling the hotel front desk before ordering room service to confirm that the correct information is listed on an official hotel menu. It’s also smart to report any suspicious menus that aren’t directly affiliated with the hotel to help out other visitors.
The particular hotel this happened at is unknown.
Koca uses the image of “Holiday Inn Express” in his video background, but doesn’t specify which hotel the scam actually took place in. It looks like he just wants people to get the general idea that this can happen at any hotel, even ones that people wouldn’t suspect to fall prey to scams like this.
The comments section is lively.
With over 189K likes and over 3,000 comments, Koca’s post has gotten massive attention. Some people shared that they’re familiar with this scam and have even seen other examples of similar tactics. Others decided to add some humor to the mix by saying that they’d be immune to such scams because they don’t have much money in the first place. Either way, everyone has their own takes to add to the conversation.
It’s always safest to ask questions before acting.
Anytime we’re away from home and making purchases, it’s best to ask questions and be as safe as possible. It can save us a lot of anxiety and money to double check that everything we purchase is legitimate. Plus, it can save us from having our stories told on Koca’s lively TikTok page.
Let us know what you think of this TikTok video about the room service hotel scam in the comments and if you’ve heard about a situation like this before.
