Marriott International has been made aware of a series of fraudulent telephone calls being made in different parts of the world where the caller offers a complimentary stay at a Marriott hotel to entice the person taking the call to listen to a sales pitch unrelated to Marriott.

This practice, known as ‘scamming’, typically incorporates a company’s branding in order to get someone to provide personal information or buy a product or service.

Marriott International said: “Marriott International has a long-standing commitment to protecting the privacy of the personal information that is entrusted to us. Marriott has not provided any information to the parties involved in these fraudulent calls. If you receive a suspicious telephone call, especially for a contest you did not enter, we urge you not to provide any personal information, especially credit card information. Instead, simply end the call and report it.”

For residents in the US, report the call to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For more information about phone scams, visit the FTC Consumer Information site.

For Canadian residents, more information on telephone scam can be found on the Canadian Telecommunications Commission’s web site.