General Chat

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?


Answer:
a. Customer's name
B. Customer's partial home
address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e.
Customer's
credit card number and expiration date!


When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information
is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the
hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a
scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go
shopping at your expense.

Simply put, hotels do not erase the
information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next
hotel guest.. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically
'overwritten' on the card and the previous guest's information is erased
in the overwriting process.

But until the card is rewritten for
the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR
INFORMATION ON IT!

The
bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.
NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn
them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not
charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not
leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily
lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader.


For
the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have
the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket.
Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the
electronic information strip!

If
you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times..
Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the
card.

OMG never knew that, thanks Eeyore for info.

FUDDY HELL


OHHHHH FUDDER DUCKS

I BEEN IN A FEW LATLEY

I just posted back my hotel room key as I found it in my pocket!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I know .Thanks for the info.

I've stayed in various hotels in the UK and the USA and not yet had my details stolen from a room card, have though managed to misplace many, tend to get a new one reissused then find the 'lost' one, have taken more than a few home never been charged for doing this, so that might be the way forward, although some reception clerks on check out 'demand' the cards are returned.

Eeyore with stripes were is this information from, I'm not doubting it, just if the informaiton is on the cards and so easy to access (I'd have thought the cards were encoded so you would need access to the hotels database when 'scanning' the card in order to bring up the details), I'd have thought someone would have mentioned this before, also I am wondering what the credit card companys make of hotels making things easy for data theives.

Edit: All purchases I have made on the internet in the past few years require the cv number (the last three digits on the signture strip), so withough that informaiton no one can go on a 'spending spree' on the net, also more recently theirs the 'verified by visa' step which (if you've used your card for net purchases and set this step up when prompted to) means the theif would also have to know your password.

Police............I know what you mean though PME.Still worth bearing in mind.

I've just run this through Snopes & it's not true

dunno about not true, but DO NOT!!! put the card in the same pocket as a mobile phone............the phones magnet will erase the data on the card,
and you will be locked out of your room..., necessitating a visit to reception to get the card re written.......I know ..........LOL I've done it!!

Bob

The key I have for my place of work is magnetic and it wipes out all deatils for my B/Soc pass book but strangely does not affect my cash/debit card.

If I am staying in a hotel (hardly ever) my key card has never been affected. Always pay cash.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp

Much of the example there is word for word what's here -- but it's cited to "From the Colorado Bureau of Investigation".

"This urban legend can be traced back to an e-mail that a detective from the Pasadena Police Department sent out more than four years ago."

http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/police/media/MediaReleases/HotelCardKeyUpdate.asp


Don't we all have enough things to worry about?
And doesn't the internet have better things to do with its time?

;)

Thanks Eeyore
didnt know that
Jenxx

Just to be sure, I keep my cards.

I have a stack of them in the cupboard. Well, some people collect figurines - I collect hotel room keys!

Deb