Something that I received from a friend. > Warning concerning Hotel Key Cards > > The following is provided for information and further dissemination, as > appropriate. > > Southern California law enforcement professionals assigned to detect new > threats to personal security issues, recently discovered what type of > information is embedded in the credit card type hotel room keys used > through-out the industry. > > Although room keys differ from hotel to hotel, a key obtained from one > well-known hotel chain that was being used for a regional Identity Theft > Presentation was found to contain the following the information: > > a.. Customers (your) name > b.. Customers partial home address > c.. Hotel room number > d.. Check in date and check out date > e.. Customers (your) 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 tak! e 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 these cards until an employee issues the > card to the next hotel guest. It is usually kept in a drawer at the front > desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!!!! > > The bottom line is, keep the cards or destroy them! NEVER leave them behind > and NEVER turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They > will not charge you for the card. >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Oct 29 2003 - 14:23:30 PST