Electronic Pickpocketing

from: Wreg.com story

Thieves now have the capabilities to steal your credit card information without laying a hand on your wallet. It's new technology being used in credit and debit cards, and it's already leaving nearly 140 million people at-risk for electronic pickpocketing.

It all centers around radio frequency identification technology, or RFID.

You'll find it in everything from your passports to credit and debit cards. It's supposed to make paying for things faster and easier. You just wave the card, and you've paid.

But now some worry it's also making life easier for crooks trying to rip you off.

In a crowd, Walt Augustinowicz blends right in. And that's the problem. "If I'm walking through a crowd, I get near people's back pocket and their wallet, I just need to be this close to it and there's my credit card and expiration date on the screen," says Augustinowicz demonstrating how easily cards containing RFID chips can be hacked.

Armed with a credit card reader he bought for less than $100 on-line and a netbook computer, WREG On Your Side Investigators put Augustinowicz to the test.

For about an hour he patrolled Beale Street, looking for RFID chips to read, and credit card information to steal. "There you go," said Augustinowicz scanning one willing participant's wallet. "It's a MasterCard," he explained looking at the man's credit card number and expiration date pop up on the screen.

Even people who thought there was no way we could pick their pocket electronically without laying a hand on them, soon learned they were wrong. "You have a SunTrust card in there," Augustinowicz explained to a second "victim." "And that's your account number and expiration date," he said showing the man the screen.

"That's just too vulnerable for everyone to take advantage of," said another person, who at first doubted she would fall victim to electronic pickpocketing. Even scarier, Augustinowicz says bad guys could work a crowd, stealing numbers and then e-mail them anywhere in the world.

"After a game here I could literally pull couple thousand cards," Augustinowicz explained to a group of women visiting from Chicago. Using just an off-the-shelf card reader, Augustinowicz explained he could swipe credit card numbers, expiration dates, and in some cases, even people's names.

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There are two materials which stop Radio Signals with incredible success... Water & Metal. Now you could carry around a bag of water with your credit cards in it, though you would make a splishing sound every where you went or you could make a duct tape wallet lined with aluminum foil, seems to me to be the better choice of the two. This will stop Electronic Pickpocketers from stealing your information.

A single layer of aluminum foil is often enough to block the RFID signals of most readers. So, I went out and found a number of Youtube videos on how to make a duct tape wallet and if you just insert aluminum foil into the directions you could have your own RFID blocking wallet. Hope you find this useful.

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