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[dougal99]

Hi Guys

I received the following from my Police Co-ordinator for Neighbourhood Watch, however he has passed on duff gen before. Has anyone authoritave knowledge of these things. It seems a lot of trouble for a hotel to go to when the data is being carried around by the customer. I accept that they will, in most cases, have the personal data on their system, but why add it to a key card?

HOTEL KEY CARDS
Ever wonder what is 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 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 (its 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.

Doug

[botchit]

Doug.
         I know little about the hotel bussiness but i work in security and we issue electronic passes with various information on and grant access to areas according to status within the company or nature of visit.Apart from permanent staff who retain ther cards which have a picture of them on it, all others are wiped as soon as they are returned.I think hotels may temporarily  retain info incase of breakages, theft etc in which case they can debit the card but none the less it is a bit beyond the pail to leave them in open view or with the same regarding access.In fact its irresponsible.
REgards Botchit

[bigfella]

Hi Guys

I would think that all the information would be on the Hotel Computer and access to that information would be triggered by your card once scanned. But eitherway I would only give scant details for just such cases as someone going on a spending spree. I also only use Visa Debit cards in these situations and only load them up through internet banking just before I need to pay for something. You cant be too carefull these days, around every corner is someone who wants money without having to do an honest days work.

Regards David

[GaryM]

When ever we buy off the internet, we give Name, Address, Card Details etc. - we all take the calculated risk that the person / shop that you buy off won't give your details out, or let any one 'nick' them! - but we do not have any control over this.

The hotel needs the information for, say to "put the drinks on my 'tab' - you hand the card over and it adds it to your card etc.  Admittedly there is a chance that 'returned cards' may be stolen, but we have the option to dispose of these, and I think that most hotels use 'disposable' cards.  -  the information would still be on the PC - which still allows a certain security risk.

Bigfella like myself use a debit card.  It only allows whats in your account to be withdrawn (however LloydsTSB allows you to go over by £100) - spoke to a branch manager who said it was a 'privilege' - more like a way to get money out of you!!

regards
Gary :)

[RipSlider]

Why would it hold this much information? A basic keycard - a basic magentic stripe card - can only hold 4 bytes of information - not enough to hold all of this. You can get more on a magentic stripe, but then your paying more for it - and hotels expect to loose most of their keycards ( I have a very nice collection from all over the country....)

4 bytes is enough to hold a door combination and a room number - that's about it.


And I would question the advice about using debit cards.

Here in the UK - and in america and canada - and I suspect most other places, the *safest* way to buy over the net is buy credit card. The reason being that when you buy by credit card the item isn't actually yours until you pay off the balance. So if there is a case of fraud, then the credit card company is the one taking the lose.

Not only are you *completely* indemnified against the complete loss of any purchase, but they'll go into bat with you to track down the fraud - the credit card company has equal liability.

This is *not* the case with debit cards. Your bank may or may not help you - it's their chioce and they have no obligation to.

Seriously, go and have a look at the citizens advice website, or have a read of this:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/c_buying_over_the_internet.pdf

Steve

[dougal99]

Hello again guys,

I should have checked the internet first (but where's the fun in that    )

This whole thing is another email-spread urban myth. See

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp


Cheers

Doug

[tigertiger]

Yes definatley a myth.

Thiings to consider.

In Europe, Data Protection Act (DPA) only allows data to be used for the purpose for which it is collected. No bona fide software comapny would/could market an illegal product (one not compliant with DPA) to another bona fide company (e.g. hotel chain).

The key cards hold data on
Room number.
Start date, and time. This is why sometimes the key card will not open your hotel room on arrival. The clock in the reception is running a few miutes faster than the clock your room door is connected to. So if your key don't work on arrival try waiting 5 minutes before dragging all your bags back to reception.
Exiry date (date you check out). This is why if you cehck in for an extra few days they give you a new card.

There is no guest info, the systems are too dumb.

[tigertiger]

Another thing to consider

Any email that starts with the word 'Warning', or anything similar, is usually a hoax.

This includes 'Virus Warning', first point of call should be your IT department for virus warning.
If it was sent to you by your IT department, then it may be genuine.

Then check internet for any of these stories, some of these hoaxes have been goin around for years, they details just change a litte.

Hoaxes are almost as damaging as some viruses. With regards to the time that is wasted by people reading them, passing them on, and then everybody checking them. Time is money, so if you do this at work it is costing your company.

I am replying to this one at home so my time is free.