Travres-Expedia, Travres, Copair, Travelnow.com, Travelscape, Expedia Fraudulent credit card charges from online hotel reservation  Internet

I booked a reservation with The Edgewater Hotel, Winter Garden, FL on 12/10/13. As of this date, 12/17/13, I have not stayed at the hotel. I first attempted to book a room on the Edgewater Hotel website, historicedgewater.com , but the reservation did not go through after I provided my credit card information as well as other contact information, street address, email, etc. I then called the hotel and made the reservation over the phone with Alicia. The next day I was contacted by VISA and discovered two fraudulent charges, one from a company called Travres for $153.96 and the other from Orlando.com for $9.95. I immediately told VISA that I had not made the charges and to freeze the account and issue me a new credit card number. 

The charge by Travres was not the amount of the correct reservation, $147.38 (it was more). The hotel subsequently called me and said that a reservation had come through to them from Expedia with a confirmation number (#387688143), a company that they do not do business with for their website reservations. After some online research I found numerous fraud complaints against Travres and some of these involved Expedia reservations. There is no problem with the hotel and they assured me that my reservation was fine. 

The hotel asked me to contact Expedia to cancel the reservation so they would not be charged for a commission. I told them of the fraudulent credit card charges and suggested that their website might have been hacked or a mirror site created to obtain credit card information. I phoned Expedia at 877-787-7186 on 12/16/13, was connected to an offshore site. I asked them to cancel the reservation ( Itin # 114909007124). I was told to call another company that was an EAN (Expedia Affiliate Network) for the cancellation. I called 800-780-5733, to a company I believe was located outside the US as well. The woman I spoke with identified the company she worked for as Copair and claimed that they only handled hotel reservations for Expedia. I asked her if she was familiar with Travres and she said yes. She said that Copair retrieved the online reservation and that Travres put through the credit card charge. She said that Travres was located in Dallas, TX. She also indicated that I would receive a refund since the reservation was prepaid (although I never used the Expedia site). I received an email confirmation on 12-16-13, that the reservation had been canceled in the amount of $153.96. I also received another email indicating that I was being refunded the amount of $0.49. Both these emails originated from email address travelnow.com and Expedia Travel. The address also referred to Travelscape. Online research indicated that there have been numerous complaints filed on ripoff.com and other fraud complaint sites for Travres, travelnow.com and travelscape. Some of the complaints for Travres that included Expedia, were with major hotel chains and made online, i.e. Marriott Hotel reservations. 

These companies, Travres, Copair, travelnow.com and Travelscape appear to be functioning as “cutout” companies for Expedia and are possibly involved in conspiracy to commit interstate fraud. An online search for Copair resulted in no hits.