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

[Kirk]

Judy, as far as becoming more active in our efforts to protect ourselves, I 
agree with you! Now, where do we start? everywhere we go we are putting 
ourselves at risk of some sort of scam or whatever!  I get upset like I said 
earlier, about giving  my credit cards to waiters or waitresses to cash out, 
or what about going through the Veterans system and having  to give your 
complete S.S. card number for them to look up your information! How do I 
know whom I'm giving this information  to, and how trust worthy they are? I 
dislike it very much and say a little prayer every time I have to do this! I 
have complained about this procedure to deaf ears many times. I guess what I 
am trying to say is if we get active to stop this intrusion of our personal 
information we would have to unite and advocate as an organization for 
change and I truthfully don't see that happening! KH


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Judith Hamilton" <jrhamilton51 at earthlink.net>
To: "NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbf-l] Hotel Room Keys Are A Security Leak


Just my humble opinion, but folks who travel a lot and stay at hotels might
take a little time to advocate to the hotel management about the validity
of this article.  If this information is true, and I am not saying it is or
is not, this might be a way of fostering better customer communication to
find a better way of doing business.   Lots of  fear factors come across
the Internet and just tolerating them, does nothing to improve the
situation.  Maybe we need to be asking if we can take the key cards with us
when checking out and see what they say.  Maybe the hotels might want to
have magnets or cell phones (i.e.: active cell phones used to invalidate a
hotel key card if put near the phone) available to swipe over the strip
prior to guest check out, so they won't have to keep spending money on
plastic cards, which we all know will be passed on to the consumer.
Regards,
Judy




> [Original Message]
> From: <MisterAdvocate at aol.com>
> To: <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>; <nfbf-leaders at yahoogroups.com>
> Date: 11/12/2010 9:57:25 AM
> Subject: [Nfbf-l] Hotel Room Keys Are A Security Leak
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> Subject: FW:  Good info..
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> Always  take a small magnet on your holiday, it'll  come in handy at the
> end of it!!
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> This is  good info. Never thought about key cards  containing anything
> other than an access code  for the room!  Read  on......
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> HOTEL KEY  CARDS
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> Know  what's on your magnetic key  card?
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> 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!
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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!
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> 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  ..
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> 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!
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> 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.
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> Information  courtesy of:  Metropolitan Police  Service.
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> PLEASE  FORWARD to friends and  family
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