Shock As Couple's Greek Hotel Room Taken by Stranger Using Their Identity

A video of a couple whose hotel booking on the Greek island of Santorini was allegedly claimed by strangers pretending to be them has gone viral on TikTok.

The clip was posted by TikTok user Phoebe Cruz (@pheebs16xox) on July 18 and had 1.9 million views at the time of writing.

A message overlaid on the video reads: "When you arrive at [your] hotel and someone's already checked in as you with all [your] info."

The footage shows what appears to be the front desk of a hotel and a woman and her boyfriend sitting with their luggage. At one point, the man is seen bringing luggage down some stairs, while the woman is seen looking wide-eyed and surprised, with her hand to her mouth.

A caption shared with the post simply reads: "Who are you."

The couple in the latest video joins millions of others who have experienced some form of identity theft or fraud.

According to U.S. Federal Trade Commission data released in February 2023, the agency received fraud reports from 2.4 million consumers in 2022, "with the most commonly reported being imposter scams."

The FTC defines identity theft as "when someone uses your personal or financial information without your permission."

The federal body advises consumers to report identity theft at IdentityTheft.gov, while fraud, scams, or bad business practices can be reported at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

The latest TikTok post comes as the average U.S. hotel occupancy is projected to reach 63.8 percent in 2023, just shy of the levels reached before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 (65.9 percent), according to a February 2023 report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA).

In later comments, the original poster of the latest viral clip said "thought I was being pranked" and "...I'm still a bit spooked [what the f***] !!"

According to a subsequent video shared by the woman, the couple was upgraded to a premium suite following the alleged incident. The footage showed the couple having drinks while sitting in what appeared to be a jacuzzi at night.

A message overlaid on the clip says: "POV [point of view] [your] hotel checks someone else into [your room] so they have to upgrade [you] to their premium suite."

A caption shared with the post simply read: "Hehe, thank [you] imposter."

Several TikTok users were intrigued and concerned by what happened to the couple in the latest viral clip.

When one user, Darren Hill, asked, "Surely they check ID upon arrival?," the woman replied: "he [hotel staff member] said they had ID with my name on !!"

Lexy asked: "If they had an ID with ur pic on it and it didn't match who was checking why did they let them in?!?!..."

User f noted: "They probably had their own picture on their fake ID but they just used her name idk [i don't know].

User @gaming_friends_stupidity said: "They had only the name and all the other stuff but they only changed the picture."

Lexy replied: "Who knows, it's a mystery." Linda Lester said: "Worst fears unlocked."

Warchicken added: "That's a whole new level of identity theft." Cedar said: "If it's a picture ID they should have looked at the photo as well. Not just the name."

Taylor Little noted: "This is why they need to check booking references too."

Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

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