Fraudsters attack from almost everywhere. Have you been to any of these hotels?

Have you given a second thought before swiping your card while booking hotels? I bet you never rethink on doing that... but what if we say you have to...

This is something that had happened at InterContinental Hotels recently. IHG didn’t reveal just how many hotel properties were considered to be at risk, but the examination shows that the state-by-state lookup tool they published online reveals it to be higher than 1170. 

In recent years many hotel chains – including Hyatt, Omni, Hilton Hotels, Starwood Hotels, and Trump Hotels – have found themselves targeted by criminals using malware to steal payment card information. The problem has become so serious that you might start to wonder whether it might be safer to pay on hotel properties with cash, or at least with a card which has a low payment limit.

The investigation identified signs of the operation of malware designed to access payment card data from cards used onsite at front desks for certain IHG-branded franchise hotel locations between September 29, 2016 and December 29, 2016. Although there is no evidence of unauthorized access to payment card data after December 29, 2016, confirmation that the malware was eradicated did not occur until the properties were investigated in February and March 2017. Before this incident began, many IHG-branded franchise hotel locations had implemented IHG’s Secure Payment Solution (SPS), a point-to-point encryption payment acceptance solution. the implementation of SPS ended the ability of the malware to find payment card data and, therefore, cards used at these locations after SPS implementation were not affected.

The malware searched for track data (which sometimes has cardholder name in addition to card number, expiration date, and internal verification code) read from the magnetic stripe of a payment card as it was being routed through the affected hotel server. There is no indication that other guest information was affected.

It is always advisable to remain vigilant to the possibility of fraud by reviewing your payment card statements for any unauthorized activity. You should immediately report any unauthorized charges to your card issuer because payment card rules generally provide that cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges reported in a timely manner. The phone number to call is usually on the back of your payment card. 

Be aware, Be safe !