A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a fellow fraternity brother stating they were stranded and robbed at gun point while in Madrid, Spain, and despite having difficulties getting money from their bank, he needed someone to send him some money to get by till he was able to get situated again. After reading the email, I swallowed difficultly, and my first reaction was a fellow fraternity brother was in need of help, and to find a way to get him some money in a hurry. His email said to respond to the email or to call a number for the hotel to discuss arrangements. Everything about the email appeared to be legit.

1) The email was sent out to an email list (actually several different ones) containing all of the fraternity alumni.

2) The person does travel overseas, and is highly respectable within our group.

3) The email included a hotel phone number to call and discuss arrangement with him.

So while I quickly racked my brain around the fact that a friend was robbed and needs help, I naturally began to wonder about the circumstances.

1) If our friend was robbed of all money, cell phone, and belongings, how was he able to send out an email to our exclusive email list? Well the hotel must have had internet access, I presumed.

2) Why would he be contacting all of the fraternity rather than family or close friends? Well maybe he does not have close family, or was unable to get in touch with them on a last minute whim, I presumed. I did not know him super well to know his family situation.

3) How can I validate this is legit before sending money? There was an international phone number I could call, but I have never made an international call before. In addition, we only have cell phones and ditched landlines, so I was worried if I could figure out how to call, it would cost me a fortune…but a friend was in need, so suck it up. I could respond to the email, but have no way of validating the person on the other end. There were some fraternity questions I could ask that only a member would know, but I need to physically talk with him to make sure he knows the answers and somehow they are not being obtained via a Google search.

Well I decided to wait a little while to see if his Facebook page showed anything, or if I could track down some more information. Shortly thereafter, he posted to Facebook that his email address had been hacked, and he was not robbed and stranded in Madrid. Whew, I was relieved everything was alright, but it got me to thinking about what if something similar would happen to us while traveling?

A Proposed Game Plan for an Emergency

1) The first thing we do before going on vacation is to empty out our wallets/purse, and only bring along the bare necessities. We will not need out library cards, certain credit cards, or local reward program cards. By minimizing what we carry with us, should something happen and they get lost or stolen, we know exactly what was in there and which cards to cancel.

2) So you have your one or two credit cards lined up for the trip. Call each of the card companies and make them aware of the trip. This not only puts the creditor on alert that there will be abnormal charges to the card over the trip period, but it is also a chance to discuss with them emergency plan options should they be needed. See my discussion on this at the end of step 3 below.

3) Make a plan. Lets assume you are overseas, and have lost your phone, wallet, passport, everything of importance. What would you do?

Before going away, it would be a good idea to talk with a select group of family or friends and have a plan should something happen. The emergency contacts should know ahead of time where and when you will be where; options to get you money, etc.; and have a list of credit card companies, embassies, etc. phone numbers available.

I presume the best thing to do would be to get to the hotel you are staying at as there will be people there that could help. The hotel, assuming you have already checked in, will already have your information on file, and should be able to get you new room keys, where you will hopefully have some backup money, identification, etc. See step 4 below. In addition, the hotel might have internet access and phones that you could use to contact those emergency contacts at home. Lastly, the hotel should hopefully have someone that speaks your language, and can get you in contact with others that could help (i.e. airlines, the embassy, etc.).

The problem would be is if you were out site seeing, away from the hotel, and stranded with no money and/or id. There is always the Amazing Race method of trying to beg people for money. However, I would probably be trying to get to the police or an embassy as soon as possible, as I would presume they could at least get us to the hotel, let alone attempt to call home on our behalf. Maybe someone on the street would have some sympathy and help, but you never know. Plus in addition, you would already be really nerved up, and not thinking straight, so might as well try and get to someone looking out for your best interest.

Once to the hotel, they should have internet access and a phone we could use. Then start attempting to contact your emergency contacts to figure out how to get some money. Once you have some money lined up to get you by on the trip, then start contacting your credit card companies to cancel your cards.

One thing I presume might be able to happen is to talk with the credit card company about getting you a new card or a cash advance on a new credit line. I do not know really how that would work though, so it might be good to talk with your creditor to see what type of options they could do.

4) As an alternative, it would always be smart to leave at least some money and identification back at the hotel. There is no point in carrying everything with you out-on-the-town. This scenario if of course ideal if you are out and already at your destination with a hotel. If you are in between travel destinations, with everything on you, and it gets stolen/lost, then I would fall back into the getting to the police to contact my emergency contacts.

Some smart planning ahead of your trip should help with the trauma of losing your belongings while on vacation. While we have been lucky not to have lost or had stolen our stuff while traveling, the hacking our friend experienced presented a real world scenario that made us really start to think about the what-ifs while we are away from home and our comfort levels of our typical day-to-day lives.

What are your back-up travel plans?