[Normy]

-Here's something for those of you who travel quite a bit. I started working for a major international company last December. They told us during indoctrination that when you go to a hotel somewhere in the world...if you leave your room to go work out or go to dinner, make sure you leave your electronic room key at the hotel. Leave it with the front desk and ask for it back when you return.

Why?

Because thieves have learned how to crack these keys. What I'm talking about are the electronic door keys that look like a credit card and rely on a magnetic strip. Apparently gypsies and others around the world [and no doubt in the US] are now targeting these room keys. They watch around hotel exit doors and will pick your pocket, trying to get the key. They watch you walk away from the hotel, and then using a reader and some software that is apparently freeware, they determine the room number and the door code. They then create their own key and proceed to enter your room and steal everything you've left behind...including all the credit cards that you thought you were protecting from pick-pockets in the first place!

There goes your laptop...

What's more, those cards not only carry the room number and binary door code, but the hotel name itself can be determined, so even if they pick your pocket while you are at the restaurant, you are still nailed.

N