Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: We're Smart Happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question,
Speaker 1: how can a valet rip you off at a valet
Speaker 1: parking facility? Now, let me first admit that, generally speaking,
Speaker 1: I'm not the kind of person who would use a valet,
Speaker 1: and neither is my wife Lee. Where the kinds of
Speaker 1: people who park a half mile away and walk because
Speaker 1: we're fat and we want to get the exercise. But
Speaker 1: if you are the kind of person who uses a valet,
Speaker 1: this post is for you, and we should admit that
Speaker 1: valets seem to becoming more and more popular. For example,
Speaker 1: you now see them at the mall, at most restaurants
Speaker 1: that are not of a fast food sort, at hospitals,
Speaker 1: you know they're They're pretty common now. The first and
Speaker 1: most obvious way to get scammed by a valet is
Speaker 1: to have the valet take something out of your car
Speaker 1: or out of your trunk, because you're given the guy
Speaker 1: your car and the keys to the trunk, and if
Speaker 1: you've left anything in there, their obvious targets. So your
Speaker 1: first line of defense is to not leave things in
Speaker 1: your car, or if you do, to have a mental
Speaker 1: catalog or better yet, a picture of those things, so
Speaker 1: that if something turns up missing, you're able to recognize
Speaker 1: it immediately and confront the valet service and get your
Speaker 1: rightem back. But that kind of stuff is pretty mundane
Speaker 1: these days, and the reason why this post showed up
Speaker 1: in the blog is because of two far more interesting scams.
Speaker 1: The first was the fake valet scam, and it came
Speaker 1: to light because a woman showed up at a hospital
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts and a man in a uniform came up
Speaker 1: to her and offered to park her car as a valet,
Speaker 1: So she handed him her keys and proceeded into the hospital,
Speaker 1: and it turned out that that hospital didn't offer valet service.
Speaker 1: He was just a rand a person who then stole
Speaker 1: her car and drove away. So the lesson to learn
Speaker 1: here is that there can be people who masquerade as
Speaker 1: valets and you need to protect yourself against that. So
Speaker 1: how do you protect yourself In almost all cases where
Speaker 1: it's a real valet, there are going to be three
Speaker 1: things in evidence. First, there's gonna be some signage identifying
Speaker 1: the availability of valet parking. Second, there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: kind of kiosk or podium or something with a lock
Speaker 1: box where the keys are stored. And third, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be official looking tickets that will be given to you
Speaker 1: so that you can later retrieve your keys and your car.
Speaker 1: If those three things aren't in evidence, then that's a
Speaker 1: pretty good indication that this is a fake valet that
Speaker 1: you're dealing with. The other reason that this post appeared
Speaker 1: in the blog is because of an amazing video that
Speaker 1: showed an interesting valet scam. And the scam worked like this.
Speaker 1: You pulled up at a restaurant that did have a
Speaker 1: legitimate valet service, but one of the valets was uh,
Speaker 1: well head converted over to the dark side. Let's say,
Speaker 1: so the valet would come up to your car, take
Speaker 1: your keys, and then say, hey, we're doing a drawing.
Speaker 1: Would you like to enter in this drawing? And you'd
Speaker 1: say sure, you know, for a free car wash or
Speaker 1: dinner or money. Most people would enter a contest. So
Speaker 1: then he would just ask you for your address so
Speaker 1: that he could put it on the raffle ticket. And
Speaker 1: at that moment, you have handed a valet your key
Speaker 1: chain normally which has your house key on it, and
Speaker 1: your car, and now the valet knows your address. And
Speaker 1: he simply proceeds to your address and either with the
Speaker 1: garage door opener in your car or with the key
Speaker 1: that you've handed him, he walks into your house and
Speaker 1: has his way with it. And this, you've got to admit,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty innovative scheme, and it's also going to
Speaker 1: be hard to track, and it's also pretty depressing to
Speaker 1: get home and find all your stuff gune. So the
Speaker 1: moral of this story is give a valet only your
Speaker 1: car key, and if you're asked for the address, do
Speaker 1: not release it, and probably you should not have your
Speaker 1: address in evidence inside your car. This whole garage door
Speaker 1: opener thing is actually a pretty significant security problem. If
Speaker 1: someone gets ahold of your car and knows your address
Speaker 1: and there's a garage door opener in your car, then
Speaker 1: unless you're locking the door into the house, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't, you've just left your house open
Speaker 1: to anybody to walk in once they have your car
Speaker 1: and your car key. And if they can't get into
Speaker 1: your house, they can still get into your garage and
Speaker 1: there may be a lot of valuable stuff in there.
Speaker 1: So maybe you want to take your garage door opener
Speaker 1: out of your car as you hand your car over
Speaker 1: to a valet, or you may want to do what
Speaker 1: I'm doing, which is parked the car yourself and walk
Speaker 1: to the place, because there's a lot less risk of
Speaker 1: deft in that case. Be sure to check out our
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