*PLEASE READ THIS SLOWLY, CAREFULLY AND RETAIN THE INFO IN YOUR MIND*
IMPORTANT

Going off on holiday ?




Always take a small fridge magnet on your holiday, they come in handy
at the end of it.
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 address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!

When you hand them back 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, hotel s do not erase the information on these cards until
an employee reissues the card to the next ho tel guest. At that time,
the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the
card and the previous guest's information is thus erased.

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 keeping the card (it's illegal to do so)
and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal
information on it that could be easily lifted off by a thief with a
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, London.

PLEASE FORWARD to friends and family .