GOOD ADVICE CIRCLING THE INTERNET

[Guest ncm2169]

GOOD ADVICE CIRCLING THE INTERNET

 

< Some of this may be a little paranoid, but by and large it’s certainly worth reviewing – especially the quick action to take if you lose your wallet. (I’d like to attribute this to its source, in case any of you know whom to credit.)

 

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

 

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

 

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED."

 

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check-processing channels will not have access to it.

 

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks, (DUH!). You can add it if it is necessary. However, if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

 

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also carry a photocopy of your passport when traveling either here or abroad. We have all heard horror stories about fraud that is committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.

 

6. When you check out of a hotel that uses cards for keys (and they all seem to do that now), do not turn the "keys" in. Take them with you and destroy them. Those little cards have on them all of the information you gave the hotel, including address and credit card numbers and expiration dates. Someone with a card reader, or employee of the hotel, can access all that information with no problem whatsoever.

 

Unfortunately, as an attorney, I have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer and received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online. Here is some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

 

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. The key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

 

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). However, here is what is perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this.)

 

3. Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

 

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet and contents being stolen:

 

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

 

2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

 

3.) TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289

 

4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

[seaboy4hire]

I like rule #2 but I was told that the see id is not suffiant enough and even though at one time I did have this on the back of my card 9 times out of 10 merchants did not ask to see my id nor check the back of my card for my signiture x(

 

Hugs,

Greg

[email protected]

http://seaboy4hire.tripod.com New page for reveiws http://www.daddysreviews.com/newest.php?who=greg_seattle

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3307/dsc05257be3.jpg[/img][/url]

I get 90 mpg! You?

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

>GOOD ADVICE CIRCLING THE INTERNET

 

 

Read http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/credit.htm as this states that most of the advice in the email is good but there are some steps that aren't necessary at all.

[snoopy]

I have also heard it is totally bogus that your hotel key card has any information other than the access code to the room you stayed in.

Anyone else hear this?

[Guest ncm2169]

I have no personal knowledge, but given the rate that all business entities are compiling info on all of us, why would you even doubt it?

[+ deej]

Your hotel room key has exactly enough information on it to open the door to your hotel room and no more. It's definitely paranoid fantasy to think it has any more than that.

 

But hey, it isn't the worst paranoid fantasy a person could have! :9

[Guest PWIT]

>Your hotel room key has exactly enough information on it to

>open the door to your hotel room and no more. It's definitely

>paranoid fantasy to think it has any more than that.

>

hmmm....makes me wonder. Was at a hotel this past year where had to use my room key at hotel bar in order to charge some drinks to my room. It was the first time I ever remember having to show a key to charge something to my room. When the bartender returned my key, he called me by my name. Of course that doesn't mean my name was encoded on the room key, he could have discovered my name when he scanned it into the computer.

[+ deej]

>hmmm....makes me wonder. Was at a hotel this past year where

>had to use my room key at hotel bar in order to charge some

>drinks to my room. It was the first time I ever remember

>having to show a key to charge something to my room.

 

That has been common for several years. It varies by chain and even location within any chain, but it's quite common. You'd be surprised how many "charge it to my room" deadbeat tabs get eliminated.

 

>When

>the bartender returned my key, he called me by my name. Of

>course that doesn't mean my name was encoded on the room key,

>he could have discovered my name when he scanned it into the

>computer.

 

The key knows which room you're in (and your checkout date). That's about it. Try to use one of those cards you didn't turn in after checkout, and the bartender will probably ask for cash. (And possibly call security.)

 

The bar's computer system is tied into the hotel's guest registry. The card tells the cash register which room you're in, and the cash register gets your name based on your room number.

 

When I swipe my "rewards" card at the grocery store, my name prints on the receipt and the cashier thanks me by name.

 

When the receipt starts printing your SSN and credit card number, then start worrying. }(

[Guest ncm2169]

Not to doubt you, but exactly how and from where do you possess these alleged facts?

[+ ArVaGuy]

Correct on all counts Deej. Were you a bellboy at one time?

 

The information on the key card is limited and when it's swiped at the bar it pulls the record from reservations.

 

Depending on the chain the card can lock you out of your room at a certain time on your scheduled check out date. That's to ensure you don't over stay past the offical check out time (usually noon). Those rooms have to be turned for the next guest and squatters drive hotels mad.

 

What's intersting now are the minibars that record items removed, post the cost to the room folio, inform the room service department the item needs to be replaced, and send the information to the central database for customer profiling. (Don't try to fill that little vodka bottle with water and put it back in the fridge, it won't let you even try. Not that I know that from personal experience. LOL)

[+ deej]

>Were you a bellboy at one time?

 

No, but I've played with a few over the years. }(

 

Just a programmer that's been inside a few of these systems.

 

>the card can lock you out of your room at a certain time

 

It can also lock you out if you carry it in the wrong pocket. :-( I've had to go to the desk to get a new key card more than once and had the desk staff tell me not to put the card in the same pocket as my cell phone.

[+ deej]

See above.

[+ ArVaGuy]

>>Were you a bellboy at one time?

>

>No, but I've played with a few over the years. }(

 

Same here. Amazing what an extra buck or two can lead to with some of these boys. :9

[Guest ncm2169]

I've seen above. Nothing there (unless I missed it) tells me about your alleged expertise in security matters. Please explain further if you want any credibility here.

[BgMstr4u]

I'd like to add one further warning from my own experience. This one's real. Having your credit or debit card information stolen (even if they don't get the card itself) is a very real possibility. And being out of the country when it happens makes it much, much more complicated.

 

On my last trip to London, in August earlier this year, I withdrew money using a debit card from an ATM attached to the outside of a bank near my hotel. I believe the thieves (it appears that this is an organized and quite professional operation) made a new card with my information on it. Within two days withdrawals in relatively small amounts were being made from that account from ATMs in places I had not been to, which eventually totalled almost $1,800. Someone had read the card type, number and PIN electronically or visually with a device attached to the machine. I got it cleared up with a full refund (the whole process took about 2 months) but learned some things I would like to pass on.

 

1) Use ATMs INSIDE the bank that owns them. These are much harder for thieves to attach electronic devices to that capture your information.

2) Use the online functions of your accounts and check them frequently. If I had not been obsessive about "visiting my money" virtually every day, this could have gone on and on until that account was drained.

3) Report any anomaly IMMEDIATELY to your bank, credit card company, etc. It cost me more than a few bucks to make those international calls, but it was worth it.

4) Have multiple sources of cash when you are traveling, and keep enough cash with you to cover a few days if you have to. That card, and hence my access to the account, had to be shut down until I could get a new card, which is expensive and hard to accomplish when you are overseas.

5) Report it to the local police immediately. Be sure to get a copy of the report and the case report reference number and include it in your written report. And report it to the place where the ATM machine is located. In my case the ATM-hosting bank informed me how tamperproof their machines were, and I told them how helpful their confidence in their technology had been to me. But at least they knew.

6) My bank required a notarized signature on their forms. The forms I could download, print and fill out and fax or send. But know that getting a US notary abroad (they would not accept a British one) is not that simple. The only one in London I could find at a moment's notice was at the Embassy, which of course was only available for three hours every Tuesday and Friday (as I recall) and cost an arm and a leg. If you're not in a major city with an embassy or consulate, you may not be able to do it at all. The bank's regulations required that the written report be received by them before I was scheduled to return home. Be prepared to BEG the bank to let you fax it (sending by courier service, FedEx, etc. is very expensive) and wait till you get home to send the notarized hard copy. Grovel if necessary. It worked for me.

7) Be prepared to lose a half day at least of your vacation.

 

I was told in the UK that beginning next fall a new type of credit card with much more sophisticated information will be in use that will make this impossible to do. Perhaps we are already receiving these new cards in the US, though we tend to lag behind Europe in the implementation of newer technologies. But my guess is that the thieves who figured out how to circumvent the more sophisticated machines will figure out how to access the new cards as well. Some of the finest minds in the world are employed in developing theft technologies.

 

Electronic fraud and theft are very real. I don't think they are completely avoidable. So be prepared.

[+ deej]

>I've seen above. Nothing there (unless I missed it) tells me

>about your alleged expertise in security matters.

 

So you don't consider a programmer that's designed/written a few of those systems to know what's in them?

 

>Please explain further if you want any credibility here.

 

Please stick your head up your ass if you think I care. I don't take orders from you and I don't give a damn what you think of anyone's "credibility".

[Guest Merlin]

In a trip to WeHo, recently, I bought several things at the LA Sports store across from the Ramada. My account was frozen a couple of days later and I was told someone was making suspicious charges to it, even though I still had the card itself. One charge was at Gaucho Grill (dinner for two), one at Subway, and another very large on at someplace called Giselle in Santa Monica. I know you can charge over the phone by just giving them the number, expiration and code on the back. But how do you go into a restaurant and get them to charge a dinner without having the card (or photo ID)? I can't prove the guy at LASC did it, but I don't have any doubt. I have never had this problem at home. I guess clerks and waiters feel they can get away with it easier if the customer is out of town.