Credit card-style room keys

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kiwi2768

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Not sure if I've posted this in the correct place, move it if you need to.

In the travel liftout in the Perth Sunday Times this week there was a small article about the credit card-style room keys. Apparently these cards have stored on them: your name, partial home address, room number, check in and check out dates and your credit card number and expiry date. When you check out and hand the card to the receptionist, your details are not immediately erased from the card but remain on there until the card is issued to someone else. Anyone with access to the hotel card reader can get your credit card details. The writer of the article advised that you should take the card with you and destroy it, and it is not illegal to take the card.

Is there any way to erase the information yourself, and try to open the hotel room door, before you hand the card back?
 
I highly doubt this is true.

The card should only have a code which marries up with the same code sent to the door (which can be changed at any time by front office staff if need be... e.g. lost card, eviction)
 
kiwi2768 said:
Not sure if I've posted this in the correct place, move it if you need to.

In the travel liftout in the Perth Sunday Times this week there was a small article about the credit card-style room keys. Apparently these cards have stored on them: your name, partial home address, room number, check in and check out dates and your credit card number and expiry date. When you check out and hand the card to the receptionist, your details are not immediately erased from the card but remain on there until the card is issued to someone else. Anyone with access to the hotel card reader can get your credit card details. The writer of the article advised that you should take the card with you and destroy it, and it is not illegal to take the card.

Is there any way to erase the information yourself, and try to open the hotel room door, before you hand the card back?
Click to expand...

hmm.. i'm not sure how all that information is stored on them. At least in the hotels i've stayed at they have a separate key coder and they only plug in the room number and check out dates.

And considering my hotel room is billed back to the company there is no CC handed over I don't know how that would get on there.
 
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Given the number of keys I have had that have erased themselves I doubt that it isvery hard to erase them.
 
Maybe there's a member who works in the hotel industry who can confirm if the article is correct or not. Personally I don't see any need for credit card info to be stored on the room card.
 
If only I had a track 2/3 magstripe reader kicking around, I could test this out right now and report back on the results :(
 
Even RFID style ("prox") cards (like those used in some Four Seasons) only store a number, which then links up with the Hotel's system. There'd be a link between that and your details in the hotel's system, but no details stored on the actual card itself.

Semi-related note. I saw a live demonstration of an RFID card cloner a few weeks ago. Very cool. :)
 
Thanks nlagalle for pointing us to the Hoax articles.

Yet another example of slack reporting, this time by the Perth Sunday Times.
 
kiwi2768 said:
Not sure if I've posted this in the correct place, move it if you need to.

In the travel liftout in the Perth Sunday Times this week there was a small article about the credit card-style room keys. Apparently these cards have stored on them: your name, partial home address, room number, check in and check out dates and your credit card number and expiry date. When you check out and hand the card to the receptionist, your details are not immediately erased from the card but remain on there until the card is issued to someone else. Anyone with access to the hotel card reader can get your credit card details. The writer of the article advised that you should take the card with you and destroy it, and it is not illegal to take the card.

Is there any way to erase the information yourself, and try to open the hotel room door, before you hand the card back?
Click to expand...


If you want to wipe the room key just run it past a magnet, I have inadvertantly done it many times by putting the key card in the same pocket as my BlackBerry but the bar fridge door seal would do just as well if you really need to wipe all info off the key card.
 
Thanks for posting. The same article was in the Sunday Mail (Brisbane), and I was going to post about it.

What a stupid article, what a stupid "reporter". There was another inaccuracy in the article that I recall, but I no longer have the paper.

Why is it so difficult to check facts?
 
Mal said:
Thanks for posting. The same article was in the Sunday Mail (Brisbane), and I was going to post about it.

What a stupid article, what a stupid "reporter". There was another inaccuracy in the article that I recall, but I no longer have the paper.

Why is it so difficult to check facts?
Click to expand...

Maybe because that would actually involve some research, AKA "work".:shock:

Don't really understand why the word "reporter" is used when describing AU media these days - awful lot of regurgitated reports almost verbatim and passed off as their own with many being founded on half truths, innuendo and in this case, baseless rumour which has been reported on the internet as a "hoax".

Sensationalism sells, and this would have caught many readers' attention, after all, we are all very concious of our CC details being used by third parties for gain, both financial and targeted marketing . . . . .
 
So this is my justification for having a stack of hotel cards in my cupboard at home - NOT OCD ;)
 
simongr said:
So this is my justification for having a stack of hotel cards in my cupboard at home - NOT OCD ;)
Click to expand...

Yes Yes.. that is my "reason" too... the pile at work and the pile at home!
 
So basically all the News websites ran the story, no surprise there. They've obviously finished with the Qantas bashing and have moved onto something else.
 
kiwi2768 said:
Maybe there's a member who works in the hotel industry who can confirm if the article is correct or not. Personally I don't see any need for credit card info to be stored on the room card.
Click to expand...

That member would be I.

This hoax goes around at least once a year, every year and people panic and reporters go wild.

There is no CC details encoded onto a mag stripe or RFID hotel door key, no matter what doorlocking system is used (VingCard, Saflok, Onity, etc).
 
vec said:
That member would be I.

This hoax goes around at least once a year, every year and people panic and reporters go wild.

There is no CC details encoded onto a mag stripe or RFID hotel door key, no matter what doorlocking system is used (VingCard, Saflok, Onity, etc).
Click to expand...
Thanks vec.
 
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