Sailors... watch out for scaming hotels and businesses!

[Michele]

My son just got his debit card statement today and we found some unaccounted transactions on it. $548.25 worth! He was on leave a couple of weekends ago and paid for a buddy and himself to stay at the Gurnee Grand Hotel, Gurnee, IL for one night. The next three transactions, totaling $548.25 to Sensation Beauty, Gurnee, IL were after the one night's fee at the hotel. How did this beauty place get his debit number and charge for it? And furthermore, this Beauty Sensation place obviously didn't ask for ID. They actually let whomever charge to just a number. Of course, we can't prove anything, but maybe if enough people boycot these types of businesses, they might just get what they deserve. Just something we should let our sailors know.

[Steve's Mom]

The Navy bank is very good at helping their sailors dispute any claims on their credit/debit/ cards. I would encourage him to do the tedious paper work.

[Michele]

The NFCU was wonderful and she was very helpful. I just hope when he gets back on base, the new acct stuff will roll as smoothly.

[Seabee Dtr]

Unfortunately this is happening more and more often. Someone had our credit card # but the bank called when they were trying to charge something in the middle of the nite. A friend of mine had her number stolen also and is trying to go thru the process of trying to get her money back. She had to file a police report and go thru quite a bit of paperwork at the bank. I hope your son can get his money back.

[Debby]

My son took a cab/van ride from Ohare to GL.. they arrived at the gates the driver who quoted him $75 before he got in the van turned around and told him $250 when they arrived at base... He said ok give me a second to ask one of the MP's over there to lend me some money because you told me $75... the guy freaked because my son was signaling the MP's.. and charged him the $75 ... My son got all the mans info and told him he will be reporting him and that he will make sure no one uses his company... they need to be careful!!!

[Seabee Dtr]

That is ridiculous, I had no idea it cost so much to get to the base from the airport. It would be great if we had some kind of shuttle buses for the kids.

[Hoppi aka Angie]

Do you know how far away the airport is from the base? $75 is a good price! There was a bus for when the "kids" went on leave.

[Tracy, Proud Mom of Darryl]

I agree with you Hoppi and from my understanding it's a round trip ticket, so when the sailors came back to Ohara all they had to do was show the ticket to the driver and they was able to get a ride to the base, at least that is what my son told me.

[Debby]

The $75 is an awesome price, especially going from Ohare or Midway both a VERY long drive from base.... but it was the fact this "person" was trying to take advantage of a young sailor coming home late at night... They need to be careful taking those buses if they are from the contract services.. no they dont cost much but the drivers are horrid.. my son and a group of his friends were going to the mall and one driver about killed them all when he was speeding and almost flipped the van lost control and drove off the road.. my son got it all on tape and showed it to his Chief.. not sure what happened it was a few years ago...

[Karen Gallagher]

They will need to be careful no matter where they are with regards to the over charging. So many think that they can over charge the young sailors or military for that matter,but they do it to civillians also.
Unfortunatly they are no longer "kids" they are now adults and hard as it is (myself included) to remember that they are now men and women.
The limo/shuttles that you can get from Ohare or Midway are very expensive, when my oldest was there it was reasonable but now it is is very expensive. I wish that there was a better way for them to get from point a to point b but no matter what base they are with this happens. There is public transportation (train) from the airport to GL just takes longer.
My sons ( and others) have had a cab co in SC attempt to rip them off like that too. The base had taken the privlidge away from that cab co to come on the base as there were so many complaints.
I have taken sailors with me when I was on my way to GL and they were returning from leave.
I sish them all well and no matter if they are in the military or civillian there are so many taking credit card numbers and using them. I can only hope that they contact the credit card co right away to stop the spending.
Good Luck and God Bless

[Robin (Ali's Mom)]

My daughter had a similar situation happen at the Sensation also doing business as Dead Sea Products. She did make a purchase from the merchant but the cashier told her he made a mistake and need to swipe her credit card a second time...and sure enough there were two charges on her card...one for 150.00 and one for 160.00. We are working with NFCU now to get this straightened out. She too had done business with the Grand Hotel but not until after the double charge. Hmmmmm.

[Achseh]

Navy Federal is awesome and very helpful in these sorts of situations. We've had them for 25 years and have not one complaint. They even tracked me down at work (I didn't give them my work number) to ask if I had used my credit card at a certain place (I had not) they cancelled the card and had a new one to me in a matter of days.

[Ronda]

A couple of years ago I stopped to get gas on my way to work. I put in my card and I knew that I had money in my account but it wouldn't authorize it. Luckily I had cash on me to pay for my gas. Almost on E so wouldn't have gotten very far. Of course the whole way I was trying call my bank to find out what was going on. Well, I finally got through and they told me that I had made over $4,500 in purchases and my account was over drawn. Well I knew for a fact that, that was a lie.

The lady said well you have puchases from Best Buy, Home Depot and a few other stores, and that the purchases were made in Las Vegas. Well of course that wasn't right because I have never been to Las Vegas and therefore there was no way that I could have made purchases in Las Vegas.

I was trying to find out what was going on and come to find out that a couple of months before I had cancelled my card and they sent me a knew one, well it looks like they didn't cancel my card and the purchases were made in the stores, no over the phone or the internet. Well the next day I got a letter from my bank letting me know that they had suspended my account due to possible fraud. Well the stupid thing is, is that they claimed they suspended my card 2 days before they let the charges go through. You would think they would allow the charges to go through if they suspect fraud.

But they did. They had my money back in my account within the next 12 hours. But I don't understand how they suspended but two days later let the charges go through. Seems it would be easier to stop the fraud before it happens, because its going to cost them more in the end.

It is pathetic how these pathetic people take advantage of our military guys and gals. And instead of the banks doing the right thing they make them jump through hoops to just get back what they have worked so hard for.

Sincerely,
Ronda