MOST TRAVELERS WORRY about someone breaking into their home when they are away.  They set lights on timers, even cancel mail and newspaper delivery for “protection”.  But for those who actually return from vacation to find their home was burglarized, few ever consider they may have actually given their address to their burglar before they even left town.  They may even have told their burglar how long they would be gone while they were in line at the terminal waiting for vacation departure.  

Who or what is a HANDLE SURFER?

• A local burglar who finds his “targets” by hanging out in local departure terminals, most commonly in airport terminals.  They get in line like a fellow traveler, carry a briefcase or small travel bag, and generally blend in.  They watch the other passengers for well dressed people with high end luggage and their home address displayed on a luggage tag.  They stay in line, watch, listen, and learn as much as possible after getting that address—they especially want to hear how long you will be gone.  Shortly before their turn at the ticket desk they ask someone to “save their place” while they go to the restroom, but they never return.  You might think this is strange behavior after standing in line a long time but you dismiss it and go on.  In fact the burglar isn’t leaving town--they have what they want, their next target or targets.   
  
  
• The person who drops a newspaper or other item near your luggage and takes a long time to pick it up or fumbles to pick it up, may actually be memorizing your address from the ID tag dangling innocently from your bag’s handle. 
  
  
• That chatty person talking about their travel plans and encouraging you to talk about your plans while in line at the departure terminal, but this person doesn’t have any luggage.
  
  
• They can learn your travel plans by overhearing a conversation and read your luggage tags while you’re distracted. 
  
  
• Even a tag with only your home phone number can commonly be used to search for your home address on the internet—this usually works even if your phone number is “unlisted”. 
  
  
• For the WOMAN TRAVELING ALONE, that loud, obnoxious potential stalker trying to get your phone number or room number can get the very thing you DON”T want him to have—your personal contact info, because it’s right there for him to read on your luggage ID tags.   Why do that to yourself?
  
  
• Child predators can get home addresses or traceable home phone number by reading the ID tags or labels on lunch boxes, back packs, or anything you label to prevent loss.
  
  

These burglars and predators are known as “HANDLE SURFERS”.  They use ID tags as a source of information they can use to exploit you, your family, or your home.  Just like we need to protect our credit card numbers and PIN numbers from “shoulder surfers”, we also need to protect ourselves from Handle Surfers. 

We all know labels or ID tags are our best hope of retrieving lost personal property.  However, as you can tell by the bulleted points above, those labels can also put you and/or your family at risk from the Handle Surfer. 

With ….OnTheGo…. you get 24/7 protection from Handle Surfers for your personal property and your home for less than $2.10 per month.