Family loses THOUSANDS in room service scam – why you need to check the hotel menu closely

A FAMILY’S vacation turned into a disaster when they thought they were ordering room service, but a clever scam conned them out of thousands.

Now, a TikTok user is making sure that his viewers don’t fall victim to the same trick.

Ali Koca shares interesting facts and shocking news stories on his YouTube and TikTok accounts, and he detailed the story of a scam that all travelers need to watch for.

“You need to be very careful about this dangerous food service scam in hotels,” Koca warned.

He relayed the story of a family on vacation who were staying in a hotel when dinnertime rolled around.

“They decided to order room service and they did, using the father’s debit card,” Koca explained.

The family waited 90 minutes, but their food never arrived, so the man called down to the hotel’s front desk.

“They told him they never got an order from his room,” Koca said. The father had a bad feeling and logged into his mobile banking app.

Reportedly, “more than $6,000 of his money had just been withdrawn in the last hour and a half.”

Koca explained how the scam worked: it turned out the “room service” menu was actually a fake, which was left in their room by a third party.

“The room service menu order they actually ordered from was slid under the door,” Koca explained.

The scam isn’t uncommon, and once a scammer has your debit card info, they’re able to take money from your bank before you realize something’s wrong.

“The best way to combat this scam is just call the front desk before you order your food,” Koca said. Ask them to confirm you’re ordering from the right menu – or, better yet, charge the order to the room.

“A lot of people don’t question twice when asked for their card info,” Koca added in a comment. “Don’t be one of those people.”

In the comments section, fellow travelers and former hotel employees shared tips to avoid the clever scheme.

“I worked at a front desk and it happens so often. Never order from those flyers,” one viewer warned. “They’re usually pizza flyers.”

“They should never ask for card info when you order room service, it just comes when you order it and it’s added into the bill after,” another reminded their fellow commenters.

A mom who travels for her children’s hockey tournaments said she avoids room service altogether: “Just Google ‘food near here,'” she recommended.

And some commenters made quips that the scam could literally never happen to them.

“Joke’s on them,” one person said. “Only $6 in my account.”