Electronic pickpocketing puts your credit cards at risk (TSA probably using this too)

wtsp.com ^ | 11/25/10 | Preston Rudie

[Evil Slayer]

St. Petersburg, Florida - If you had any doubt that someone could steal your credit card numbers by simply walking past you, a few minutes with Walt Augustinowicz will probably chance your mind.

"Wow that is crazy. It kind of makes me nervous," said Reina Monsour after watching one of Augustinowicz's demonstrations.

"Technology is getting scarier and scarier," added Ivan Marik after watching another demonstration.

By simply using a credit card scanner attached to a battery pack, Augustinowicz shows how easy it is to grab sensitive information from an unsuspecting person.

[nomad]

For starters try http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8cdd/ and use ‘Faraday cage wallets” http://www.dogpile.com as your search terms.

[nomad]

Or just buy an RFID protected wallet,I hear they make women`s purses too. Try “Faraday cage wallets” as your search terms http://www.dogpile.com

[Evil Slayer]

Wow!! I bought me a hand held scanner back in the early 90s to listen in on police dispatch calls for fun. Didn't realize that I could also listen in on my neighbors cordless phone conversations as well as cell phone conversations. They have since made it a law that all companies that sell scanners have to put a blocking mechanism on them for cell phones. Also, most people are using the more advanced cordless phones that have random frequencies that scanners can't pick up now days. It's kind of ironic that I can still listen in on police dispatch even today. You would think that they would have encrypted their frequencies so they couldn't be picked up by a simple scanner.

[Tunehead54]

Thanks - I tried WikiAnswers unsuccessfully then got distracted. This link off your google search is helpful: RFID Credit Card Chip Extracted For Your Viewing Pleasure!

My Amex and two Visas (credit and debit) do seem to have RFIDs having hologram squares in the same place as the video. The Amex just has an Amex logo in the same place ...

Thanks for your help! ;-)

[hoosierham]

It has been a Federal crime since 1934 to misuse information overheard by monitoring non-broadcast radio .

I am concerned when everything related to government is secret and encoded.

[Professional Engineer]

Ping

[Revel]

One would think that RFID could be jammed with a really low power transmitter of some kind. If you had it on your person then the signal would only have to be strong enough to interfere with a signal that is about 12 inches from you person. In fact if it could be kept in your wallet then it would only have to jam signals for a couple of inches from your wallet. Just continuously transmit garbage RFID at a very low power?

[goat granny]

I had the same though, great minds run along the same track...:O)

[TribalPrincess2U]

Don’t know how to address several freepers at the same time so ...

THANKS to everyone who was so nice to answer my question on using tin foil.

[Almondjoy]

Good thing my cards have zero liablity. I’ll let the let the finance companies figure out how to combat it.

[nomad]

If you could zero in on the frequency, it should work.Do RFIDs use many frequencies?I`ve heard a microwave oven will induce a power surge and fry the chip but that would negate the purpose of having one.I`d prefer a card with a magnetic swipe strip only.