Saturday, August 21, 2010

Florida Inmate scams Hotel Guests out of Credit Card information

By: Eric Hertha

Hospitality Business News – Bahamas Desk
August 21, 2010

Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Corrections announced Friday the arrest of five Orlando residents on charges of fraud. Those arrested include Daimion Goldsmith, 40, Kendra Hodge, 22, Lavonda Goldsmith, 45, Geneva Legrier, 18, and Levell Jones, 64. One additional suspect, Edison Filer, 48, is currently at large.

Damion Goldsmith who was previously convicted of credit card fraud, fraud and grand theft is an inmate at the Suwannee Correctional Institution in Live Oak Florida. According to arrest documents Goldsmith had friends help him call hotels and ask room-service employees for the numbers of rooms they had just delivered to. When speaking to room service employees he claimed to be a hotel employee from security and the room service workers would routinely supply the guest room information.

Once Goldsmith obtained the guest room number he or one of his accomplices would contact the guest and pretend to be a hotel employee. They would claim that the computer system was down and that they needed the guest’s credit card information. Although many guests did not supply the information the FDLE has identified eight victims who agents said lost more than $10,000.

Orlando hotel guests were not the only ones targeted. Tourists in Alabama, North Carolina and other states also were victimized in incidents going back to August 2009, the FDLE said.

Prior to this incident Goldsmith was scheduled to be released in April 2015. Not that his incarceration makes Florida, or any other state, safer.

0 comments:

Post a Comment