Sydney woman fears for financial info
Hotel computer glitch the cause of multiple attempted credit card transactions, says manager
A Sydney woman who stayed at a Halifax hotel in February fears that her personal financial information is at risk because of a credit card “glitch.”
Andrea Chisholm stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Halifax Stanfield international airport on Feb. 2. Even though she used a debit card to pay for the onenight stay, the hotel required her credit card information for incidental expenses.
But this week Chisholm said she began receiving notifications from her credit card company about attempted authorizations for a $250 withdrawal.
“I just happen to have the function activated on my phone to tell me whenever my credit card is used,” Chisholm said an interview from her Sydney home. “I woke up (Tuesday) . . . at 6:26 in the morning, my (notification app) said $250 was declined by Hilton Garden Inn hotel and it was done three times.”
She received another three notifications at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning and on Thursday morning the attempted $250 transaction occurred 12 times.
Chisholm said the hotel manager told her it was a computer glitch related to the hotel’s pay processor’s attempt to do a “batch authorization” of transactions from different customers.
The manager didn’t tell her why these attempted transactions were occurring so long after her
stay at the hotel. She said he did say there had been “a few” complaints about the unusual transactions.
The manager of the Hilton Garden Inn declined to speak to The Chronicle Herald. Hilton’s head press office hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
The hotel emailed Chisholm on Thursday with the batch authorization explanation and she was told the authorization for the $250 didn’t go through. But that hasn’t eased her fears about her personal financial information being at risk.
She called her credit card company, Capital One, and a representative said her account would be monitored to stop the authorization attempts but they continue.
Chisholm added that many people don’t have credit card notifications set up so they might not notice unusual transactions.
“Obviously in the news, that’s all it is now, companies being hacked, not just mom and pop things we’re talking about, big reputable companies. I’m just scared.”