Southern California law enforcement professionals assigned
to detect new threats to personal security issues, recently discovered
what 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 the "Double Tree" chain that was being used for a regional
Identity
Theft Presentation was found to contain the following the information:
* Customers (your) name
* Customers partial home address
* Hotel room number
* Check in date and check out date
* 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 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 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.
Information courtesy of:
Sergeant K. Jorge,
Detective Sergeant,
Pasadena Police Department
First hint this was BS was that some sargeant in the Pasadena PD would actually issue a press release to the public about this. It's way over his head and out of his jurisdiction to do such a thing.
So, a quick search of google for "hotel credit card theft" and the first link turns up this:
But on a more serious note, have you guys heard about a white-furred manlike creature prowling around in the forests of Northern America? Isn't anyone scared about it? What if this so called "Yeti" came to get YOU? Are you prepared? Pass the word!
It's still good info and not BS. The link you posted even agrees that you should keep and destroy your card. Sure it doesn't happen all the time...but it could.
First hint this was BS was that some sargeant in the Pasadena PD would actually issue a press release to the public about this. It's way over his head and out of his jurisdiction to do such a thing.
So, a quick search of google for "hotel credit card theft" and the first link turns up this:
But on a more serious note, have you guys heard about a white-furred manlike creature prowling around in the forests of Northern America? Isn't anyone scared about it? What if this so called "Yeti" came to get YOU? Are you prepared? Pass the word!
Come again? The link says it's total BS and that all the chains they talked to said they only put the room number and # of days the card will work on the card.
Could it happen? I guess.. but you could also get hit in the head with a meteorite when you walk outside - so shouldn't we all start wearing helmets outdoors?
I'm just saying it's a known urban legend - the original story *IS* BS. It states that a Doubletree hotel card contained personal info and this info is routinely stored on cards. There are quotes from numerous higherups and employees of various hotels saying they do not put this info on the card, and that there is no reason to put it on the card. The article also (correctly) suggests that virtually any hotel employee has access to all your personal information anyway.
The main piece of info one should be careful with is an SSN#. Another high risk thing is a debit/check card, because they often do not have the same protection as a credit card does. On a CC, your max liability is $50. It's SOOOO easy to get CC numbers from people and most don't even realize how many folks have this info about them. But someone stealing your identity because your home address and credit card number is stored on the keycard at your local Motel6 or Doubletree is simply not true.
I remember my first biz trip... I was 18 and the company I worked for paid for me to fly to LA to attend a training conference that ran for like 5 days. I took the place of the director of IT who couldn't make it, and nobody else could either kinda thing. So I just transferred all his reservations for everything to me.
I show up and it's a really REALLY nice hotel in downtown LA. The guy had rented a luxury euro car, and all this other good shit. So being my first travel experience on my own, I was sucking down booze and eating those cashew nuts every day from the minibar, watching pornos, playing nintendo in the room, etc, etc. When I left I grabbed pretty much everything outta the minibar, and took a couple of towels too. i didn't know they backcharged you for that stuff. I had a real hard time explaining >$1000 "extra fee" charge on the company credit card [img]/images/graemlins/laughing.gif[/img]
Linear Mode
