Hotel Key Cards Fraud - NOT Quite an Urban Ledgend

CONSUMER REPORTS

[steplock]

CONSUMER REPORTS

 

UNLIKELY VICTIM

Name: Jerry Coleman, 51, assistant
district attorney, San Francisco

PROBLEM: Twice while leading out-of-town ID-theft seminars and a third time locally, Coleman was the victim of “skimming” frauds that charged $28,000 to his accounts. In the first case, which resulted in several convictions, a hotel clerk swiped Coleman's credit card through a second, hidden card reader that transferred information onto the magnetic strip of a hotel key. The crooks then tried to charge perfume, among other things, to Coleman's account. The other two cases are unsolved. “If you can get them mid-scam, you can bust them,” Coleman says.

[steplock]

As you can see above, you cannot always rely on SCOPES etc to pronounce guilt on a story. I have seen quite a few of their "LEDGENDS" declared so ONLY because of politics - personal biases - or plain lying to protect friends/heroes of the left.

Though I did not verify the specific facts, I DID check on the probabilities of this story before I posted the original one that was declared as URBAN LEDGEND.

The probability of the FRAUD is REAL!

Now --- the big question can now be ---

WHY

has this story been branded off-hand a hoax? Is it to protect the hotel industry? the Credit card industry? A cartel of leftist thieves?

[mewzilla]

FWIW, never let someone swipe your card out of your sight. Good rule of thumb no matter where you are.

[b9]

Thanks for posting this.
I'll NEVER let my credit card out of my sight by a hotel clerk or anyone else again :o(

[Charlie OK]

I have always found it odd that people blindly take the word of Snopes as the final authority. They seem to have an agenda on some things.

[RandallFlagg]

A cartel of leftist thieves?

The DNC?

Sorry. I couldn't resist..

[Atlas Sneezed]

I don't see the relation between the credit card fraud that has occurred, and the hotel key card fraud that appears not to have occurred.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I stand corrected, not having seen the bright yellow writing I missed the first time. However, there is no indication that they put the CC info on HIS key card. It would be of little use that way, and it makes more sense that they stored it on another key card that they kept.

If they are going to steal your credit card info, the odds are that they will use storage means other than your room key.

And there is still no evidence that anyone has ever been defrauded by the use of information stored on a hotel key card that they returned after their stay.

So the original story really is an Internet legend.

[Sloth]

This kind of fraud can occur at any business that accepts credit cards, though the availability of the keycard encoder would make it easier. But it still has nothing to do with the actual room key itself.

[lodwick]

From truth or fiction.com:

One fraud detective we talked with said the eRumor may have been prompted by a police case from Southern California where investigators broke up a group of foreign credit card crooks.
They had a large number of stolen key cards from a particular hotel.
The police decided to scan them to see what was on them and they found credit card debit card numbers, not hotel room information.
The reason, according to the detective, is that the crooks can use a credit card scanning device to steal credit and debit card information, program it on to a hotel key card and use it just like the original card.
He said that there was a case in Fresno where a member of a foreign credit card fraud gang was an employee at a gas station.
He had made a device that would scan customers' credit and debit card info on to a hotel key card at the same time that the card was being used for a purchase.

Keep those cards in sight guys.

[b9]

He had made a device that would scan customers' credit and debit card info on to a hotel key card at the same time that the card was being used for a purchase.

!gulp!

[steplock]

The relationship?

"a hotel clerk swiped Coleman's CREDIT CARD through a second, hidden card reader that transferred information onto the magnetic strip of a HOTEL KEY.

That's why I hilited that phrase in the story

[steplock]

I could resist adding in the "conspiracy theories" at the end ... it usually gets some interesting responses!

:>)

[steplock]

ok ok - yer right. it was not stored on HIS room key card .. I didn't read your comment close enough.

I doubted that a hotel (as the 'original' article implied) would do that due to security reasons. But as I searched around, I found quite a wide assortment of actual cases (such as this article) where CC info was transferred to a hotel key magnetic strip.

And to be extra careful now - this NOT verified yet - but the state drivers license that have magnetic strips carry much MUCH more info than what is required .... another security problem soon to surface.

.

[Atlas Sneezed]

And to be extra careful now - this NOT verified yet - but the state drivers license that have magnetic strips carry much MUCH more info than what is required .... another security problem soon to surface.

---

With a drivers license, you can simply erase it with a magnet. Let the cop who writes you a speeding ticket type in the data manually. (With a hotel key, you won't be able to get into your room.)

(Note that your DL can't have any new info added since it was issued.)

[Revolting cat!]

A lesson for all: don't ever leave your hotel key card on a ledge end!