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 (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.

PLEASE FORWARD to friends and family.

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SunChips is giving away a coupon for a free 10.5 oz bag of SunChips to Facebook fans. They are only giving out 100,000 coupons, so hurry!! Go here and become a fan, then look under the bag giveaway tab, to sign up.

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Hanes cruise giveaway is offering a free pack of socks to the first 100 entrants every friday each week until 3/31/10.  This is available to U.S. residents only.

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