Ex-NC hotel worker sentenced. She greeted guests and stole their identities, feds say
A woman who greeted guests at the front desks of various North Carolina hotels was sentenced to five years and a month in prison Friday for stealing their identities and money, prosecutors said.
Autumn Wlliams hatched a hotel-room scheme to rip off guests at Greensboro and Winston-Salem hotels, court records in U.S. District Court in Greensboro show.
The 24-year-old Greensboro resident booked rooms using the credit card information of unsuspecting former guests, according to court documents. She sent the hotels credit card authorization forms supposedly signed by the card holders, the records show.
The forms allowed the hotels to type credit card information manually without swiping the card, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston’s office.
Williams then sold the rooms “for cash at a steep discount,” according to the release. She told buyers she was a travel agent or hotel employee “able to secure rooms cheaply,” Hairston said in the release.
Prosecutors said Williams found buyers through word-of-mouth and Facebook.
The Secret Service launched an investigation with help from Winston-Salem and Greensboro police, and Williams pleaded guilty in February to attempted wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to court documents.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs also ordered Williams to serve three years of supervised release and pay $276,570 in restitution and $200 in special assessments.