Our Teenagers
This month may have been a stressful time for those who have taken exams and awaited their results. Proud parents and grandparents have been keen to tell of their youngsters successes. We would like to congratulate them all on the hard work that they have done and wish them happiness in their next step along the road of education. We wish Molly success when she goes to the East Anglia University, it will be quite a wrench to live away from home for the first time - no mum and dad, no grandparents! Freedom at last!
Credit Cards
Please be careful when using your credit cards, don’t let them out of your sight. You might have read about a large gang of people who have conned the elderly into thinking that they were police officers, as they were investigating a fraud. They took their credit cards etc and the savings of the elderly were stolen. If anyone comes to your house, please make sure that you do not open the door until you have checked their credentials and even then try to get someone to be with you. Wave to your next door neighbour even if they are not there, because bogus callers do not like too many people around.
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 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 the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process. 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 the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any 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.
