[Nfbf-l] Hotel Room Keys Are A Security Leak

[Kirk]

Dwight, thanks for giving us this infrrmation! I know many of us travvel 
about and don't realize how easy it is to leave ourselves vulnerable to 
anyone that wishes to take advantage of us! KH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MisterAdvocate at aol.com>
To: <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>; <nfbf-leaders at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 9:33 AM
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Hotel Room Keys Are A Security Leak













Subject: FW:  Good info..







____________________________________




















Always  take a small magnet on your holiday, it'll  come in handy at the
end of it!!

This is  good info. Never thought about key cards  containing anything
other than an access code  for the room!  Read  on......

HOTEL KEY  CARDS

Know  what's 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  return it 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 card scanning/reader device  ..

For the  same reason, if you arrive at the airport and  discover you still
have the card key in your  pocket, don't toss it in an airport bin; take it
home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially  through the electronic
information  strip!

Alternatively  if you have a small magnet, pass it across the  magnetic
strip several times when you leave your  room for the last time before 
checking
 out; now try it in the door, it should  not work. It erases everything on
the  card.

Information  courtesy of:  Metropolitan Police  Service.

PLEASE  FORWARD to friends and  family





















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