Electronic Pickpocketing Beware

[P.V.]

Using a scanner bought on-line one man showed us how easily he was able to swipe and steal your credit card information without laying a hand on your wallet. Demonstrating how easily cards containing RFID can be hacked in the below link.

Link Removed (invalid URL)

 

[anniemac]

Made me look and see if my cards are radio frequency. Makes you just want to go 'off the grid' permanently.

 

[P.V.]

Made me look and see if my cards are radio frequency. Makes you just want to go 'off the grid' permanently.

I did the same thing, appears the new cards have the ))) displaying the feature.

 

[Mousey]

Made me look and see if my cards are radio frequency. Makes you just want to go 'off the grid' permanently.

Maybe buy one of those cheapo stainless steel card holders I've been seeing advertised.

What's so sad... while I absolutely hate today's swipe and spend mentality (cards for everything) there has been a rash of counterfeit money recently, (even $1 bills !?) and there are delays at the cashier while she marks each bill with the tester, holds them to the light, etc., etc. This keeps up, paper money will become useless.

Also remember the thieves that put fake card readers in stores and then sit out in the parking lot with their laptops stealing info (like card info AND pin).

signed, Paranoids R Us....

 

[vinylweatherman]

The biggest problem is when banks say that a scam is "impossible". This leads to victims NOT being able to get their money back, and I have heard of one case where the VICTIM was then arrested and charged for making a false claim for reimbursement because the bank said that what she had claimed had happened with her card was "impossible".

The main thing this kind of demonstration does for customers is to make it "impossible" for the banks to cry "impossible" when a victim makes such a claim. This means the banks HAVE to reimburse customers who suffer because of "on the cheap" security.

Chip & Pin is more vulnerable than it should be because when it first came out, banks went for the CHEAPEST implementation, rather than the most secure. They assumed that the risks were negligible, but it didn't take long for the fraudsters to probe for weaknesses, find them, and exploit them.

One major claim was that it was "impossible" to hack the merchant chip & pin terminals, yet within a year the whole system had to be withdrawn from pretty much every Shell petrol station in the UK a bunch of criminals had managed to infiltrate so many "gaffed" terminals into the system that Shell lost control of the situation. It took quite a while to wring the TRUE reason for the sudden return to signing a slip, which banks had said had been made "permanently unavailable" months before.

The RFID system may be limited to payments of £15 or less here, but you can just as easily steal 10 lots of £15 as you can one lot of £150. In fact, taking small amounts rather than large is LESS likely to draw attention to the crime when the victim checks their statement, especially if they are using RFID payment many times a day themselves.

Customers should have the choice between a new RFID card and an old one.

This will ALWAYS be a weakness until the banks do away with the magnetic strip, and ALL countries implement chip & pin, and "card not present" transactions are REQUIRED to be done via systems such as "Securecode" over the internet, and some kind of similar system over the phone.

It is not surprising that online casinos find themselves targetted with stolen cards, as very few use "securecode" layers on deposits, so a cloned card will work just as well as the original so long as the CVV code has been copied.

 

[Nate]

I use my Credit Card often. It is still the Chip and Pin kind. I haven't seen the RF type as yet.

About a month ago, My CC was charged for almost $12 000.00 in two separate transactions. The fraudsters MAY have swiped my card somewhere locally. I am VERY vigilant with my cards but must admit that I do add a lot of funds to my card then do my shopping.

I have more than 1 Platinum Card and I believe that these are possibly targeted and cloned because of the high limits afforded to the holders. My CC issuer was on the ball and queries MOST of my transactions to confirm if they were made by me. I found it to be a tad bit irritating, but in the last two, I actually realised that this is common occurrence and fraud is rife. Thanks to them and the early phone call, I am NOT $12 000 out of pocket.

Nate

 

[luarod]

And the amount of stuff fraudster do and we don't have any idea about. Some time ago I saw an tv show about internet and phone security and I was traumatized by it.

 

[dwype]

since i first heard about this sort of thing a few years ago i've been carrying my credit cards wrapped in a little wallet i made of aluminum foil, paper, and duck tape (the quack quack kind : )

on a related note, instead of signing my credit card i put "ask for photo ID" in the signature place. 9 out of 10 cashiers don't ask me for my ID. it's scary. once i was working at a restaurant and one of the customers did the same thing with his credit card and i thought that was awesome.