Staying at a Hotel
Always take a small magnet on your holiday,
they come in handy at the end of it.
Thought you all needed to know this.
This is pretty good info..
Never even thought about key cards containing anything
other than an access code for the room!
HOTEL KEY CARDS
Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
Answer:
a. Customer's name
b. Customer's partial home addresses
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.
Information courtesy of:
Metropolitan Police Service.
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