Is this an Urban Legend??????

[hammersley]

Southern California law enforcement professionals assigned to detect new

threats to personal security issues, recently discovered what type of

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

 

[duaneparks]

While this particular item is a hoax, it is loosely based on facts.



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





As a former Hospitality Industry department head, I know that hotels are required by law to keep guest information confidential within certain limitations.



When I left the industry, there was a link between key cards and information in the computer system about the guests. Again, this was used internally to allow guests to charge items to their rooms from the gift shop, restaurant, or other outlets within the hotel, as a convenience to the guests. The cards are either destroyed upon checkout, or recoded for use for another guest. The encoded info would be useless outside the hotel's point of sale and property management system, unless of course, thieves had access to these systems, which is normally unlikely.



HTH.



Duane

 

[Steve M]

Another reason why I tow our hotel room behind us when we go out of town!

 

[HEMI®Dart]

More info: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/keycards.htm