Seven Joliet, Illinois hotels were hit with search warrants as part of the ever-so-subtly-named “Operation Sleep Over.” The sting yielded 10 arrests of hotel employees and managers. The hotels included a Holiday Inn Express and two Super 8 locations. (The fact that Joliet is perhaps most famous for its prison, as featured in The Blues Brothers, is somehow fitting…)
Hotel workers apparently systematically stole credit numbers and personal information from guests at their properties. They then turned around and sold the data wholesale to identity thieves. Over 10,000 credit card numbers and associated information changed hands, though they were typically sold in lots of 10, at rates between $1,000 and $5,000.
If you were the victim of this operation, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be contacted by anyone regarding the matter. So you might want to get a copy of your credit report if you stayed in the area in the last six years. In fact, you should just get a copy of your credit report, period. It’s just a good idea to get one, and it’s free, with no catch. I get one every year, and this last time was the very first time in 10 years that there was NOT an error. Errors aren’t always fraudulent in nature, but still, you want to make sure the record is clean.
As for preventing future incidents like this from happening, there’s not much you can do at the local level, unless you’re willing to cut up your credit cards and go all-cash. Until Congress makes it tougher for someone (including you yourself) to obtain “instant” credit without verifying your identity, we’ll continue to hear stories like this.
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November 4th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Hi there!
This is unbelievably interesting. Good eye opener for me to be extra careful. Thanks for sharing that identity theft is for real.
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Cheers!
November 4th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
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May 30th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
It is very interesting to read this blog. As i was one of victim of Will County Sheriff Department allegation of selling Credit Card # to informant. Media and Sheriff Department has said and wrote their share, So i am here to share and stand up to these unorthorodox department of duping and destroying innocent peoples career and life. Let me clear the air by confirming that Operation Sleep Over was nothing but greed of winning Sheriff Election. As by now we all know what happened with the case..If you need details, you should question Sheriff Department of the “Clad Iron” remark they shouted off! Let me just say, They are going to be very sorry for their fault action.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:26 am
As a current employee of the Holiday Inn in Joliet who was employeed at the time, I am throughly disgusted that you did not follow up on this story. Apparently you weren’t aware or cared that EVERY SINGLE HOTEL AND THEIR EMPLOYEES WERE CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES DUE TO LACK OF EVIDENCE.
You left this story to be read by readers who have nothing but this story to go on. How dare you and how throughly unprofessional of you to be blogging about things you apparently do not know. You should be ashamed of your self by continuing to perpetuate an incorrect story. The decent thing is to at least delete the blog or update it, you did neither.
Kimberley Dolph
You can e mail anytime!
February 4th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Kimberley,
Instead of lashing out at me for a blog posting that has been up for nearly four years, you could have e-mailed me details of the case. I would have updated the post to reflect verifiable information. I was unaware that there was any update on this, and frankly, I still can’t find anything about it online at this point. Point me to a link showing the exoneration, and I’ll update the post. You can leave those details in another comment here anytime, or use the Contact link.
I trust that you sent similar comments to the Associated Press and USA Today?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-03-hotel-fraud_x.htm
Like I said, point me to information detailing that the case was dropped. I’ll amend the post. Documentation is preferable to grandstanding.
Thanks.