| Description | The following information is in response to numerous inquiries about an
e-mail that was distributed regarding hotel card keys and personal
information. Please take note and feel free to share with any constituents
who may also have concerns.
On October 6, 2003, Detective Sergeant Kathryn Jorge of the Pasadena Police
Department received information from a group of Southern California fraud
detectives who had formed a fraud investigations network through a local
internet carrier. One of the members of this group from another San Gabriel
Valley agency reported that in an investigation that he was personally
involved in, he came across a plastic hotel card key from a major hotel that
had personal information that could potentially lead to identify theft and
fraud. This information included names, addresses, length of stay, and
credit card numbers. This detective took the precautionary measure of
notifying the detectives in the network prior to seeing if this practice was
standard in the industry.
As the investigation into this potential fraud risk continued, this
information was shared with other members of the Pasadena Police Department
and personnel chose to share this information with others before we could
correctly evaluate the risk. This has caused a chain reaction of probably
thousands of people being given this information before the risk was
evaluated thoroughly.
As of today, detectives have contacted several large hotels and computer
companies using plastic card key technology and they assure us that personal
information, especially credit card information, is not included on their
key cards. The one incident referred to appears to be several years old,
and with today's newer technology, it would appear that no hotels engage in
the practice of storing personal information on key cards. Please share
this information with anyone who has a concern over the initial information
send out to others as a precautionary measure.
There was never the intent of the Pasadena Police Department to forward this
information to others before the risk was evaluated. The information was
forwarded by individuals as a possible precautionary note of interest only.
Janet A. Pope
Adjutant to the Chief of Police/Public Information Official
Pasadena Police Department
626.744.4537
And now the rumor.
ALL
Check the below out...food for thought!
USMS POC: Operations Support Division (202-xxx-xxxx)
Courtesy of the Pasadena PD and the U.S. Mint:
"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:
a.. Customer's (your) name
b.. Customer's partial home address
c.. Hotel room number
d.. Check in date and check out date
e.. Customer's (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
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