Hotel Keycard warning

soolin

LittleVoice wrote: »

And I wonder if they verified "They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal)".

I recall our Neighbourhood Watch including some urban myth or other in its newsletter to residents a while ago.

It was an email printed out for a police station server by a serving policeman and handed to my mother in law bythat policeman that put her in fear for her life. It was the one a long while ago about people pretending to be bT engineers working at the green boxes listening in on phone lines to see if people lived alone so they knew they could break in and rob them. The email even said that if she left her home they would follow her and of course she couldn't phone anyone for help as they would know. She didn't go out or sleep for 2 days.

If she hadn't begged me not to make a fuss I would have been down there and demanded that they send all their officers on a 'blooming common sense and learn how to use snopes' course. They thought it was funny, I did not , I have disliked these scare stories with a passion ever since and have lost cyber friends purely because they persisted in sending them to me.

.Likewise i worked at the NHS and they actually had to make circulating these scam emails a disciplinary offence as staff would fall for it, send it to everyone in their inbox and it would get out into the wider public looking official as though it was from the NHS. Epecially for some of the medical scare emails it became 'the NHS sent me this so it must be true'.

I urge anyone being sent anything like this, however harmless it might seem, to follow the trail back and make complaints. If it has come out though a police or any other government body system complain. Make it formal. Make these people use a tiny shred of common sense before they try to panic everyone. I have followed some of mine back (people rarely hide previous email addresses and just continually send to everyone) and have made complaints to some fairly large organisations about a named member of their staff using the business email to send these out.

Mankysteve

Who says its illegal for them to charge you for not returning there property btw?

vyle

Even if this WAS true, it could easily be combated by putting the card in the same pocket as your mobile phone and marvelling as the phone de-magnetises the card and makes it unusable.

I've had to get the cards re-done so many times because I will keep putting them in my phone pocket. It's a nightmare.

Freddie_Snowbits

tryingtogetsolvent wrote: »

I actually received it in a circular from the Met!......:o:o:o

Did you ask the nice Policeman the time

Mk14:37

OP if you ever want to become a Money Saving Expert you need to learn the difference between debit and debt (signature!)

System

When somebody feeds you something that smells of bulls**t and it looks like bulls**t then a visit to Snopes, is always a good idea

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

Apples2

Warning Fail

soolin

!!!!!! wrote: »

When somebody feeds you something that smells of bulls**t and it looks like bulls**t then a visit to Snopes, is always a good idea

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

I do so love snopes, I think it should be a compulsory bookmark for everyone.

barvid

tryingtogetsolvent wrote: »

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.

So you're advocating theft?

Freddie_Snowbits

My details are kept quite safe.

Just ask Brenda in the Dog and Duck, she has plenty of rooms available!