200 tourists thought they paid for hotel rooms in Rome, but the hotels didn’t exist
Scammers in Italy tricked hundreds of tourists into booking nonexistent hotels, then stole their credit card information to pay for their own luxury lifestyle, authorities said.
The scammers created online profiles for hotels and tourist facilities in Rome that did not exist, then posted these profiles on various hotel reservation sites, according to a Tuesday, Dec. 13, news release from Italy’s State Police Headquarters in Rome.
More than 200 people, mostly foreigners that included American tourists, booked these fake hotels, police said. After a booking was made, scammers called the victims and asked for their credit card information to pay a deposit on the reservation, officials said. The scammers told victims this deposit would be refunded later.
Instead, the scammers cloned the victims’ credit cards and began making fraudulent charges, police said.
Meanwhile, the suspected scammers lived in luxury, officials said. They stayed at exclusive suites in the best hotels in Rome, ordered room service meals, drove high-end cars, and wore expensive jewelry and watches to appear rich, police said. The scammers charged these purchases to the cloned cards.
The scammers stole more than $640,000 between March 2021 and May 2022, Italian officials said. Authorities in Rome said they traced the I.P. addresses involved in the fraudulent transactions and conducted searches, arresting two individuals.
During these searches, officials found a logbook with the victims’ names, financial information and contact information meticulously recorded, the release said.
The two individuals arrested are facing charges of criminal conspiracy aimed at committing fraud, money laundering, unlawful use of credit cards, impersonation and cyberfraud, the release said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service were also involved in the investigation and arrests, Italian authorities said.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release from Italy’s State Police Headquarters in Rome.
This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 10:07 AM with the headline "200 tourists thought they paid for hotel rooms in Rome, but the hotels didn’t exist."
