RFID in your credit card?

[Stormin Mormon]

Can a theif scan your credit card from several feet away, and get your data?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus .

[Erik]

That is a very good report.

This is true, not new news, and scary.

Those RFID tags are everywhere these days. Credit cards, debit cards, store anti theft & inventory control tags, passports, automotive 'key less' entry keys/cards & 'immobilizers', implanted animal ID 'chips', library books and on and on and on....

Here's a good read:

Be sure not to miss the 'Shielding Controversy' section of the above article.

I wholeheartedly suggest demanding RFID free cards from your card company/s.

Erik

[krw]

Not if you keep it under your tinfoil hat. ;-)

[tom]

Chase sent me new cards without RFID's at no charge when I requested them.

[HeyBub]

Most merchants outside the U.S., e.g. Europe, will not take a card without RFID.

[Han]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:wrednfiI_bBUUNHSnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe there is a distinction between an RFID chip and the chip used in "European"-style cards.

Google "picture of chip and pin card" to see pictures of those cards: The second row shows the chip contacts of a couple of configurations. This is different from the contact-less terminal that indeed (likely) uses RFID of some kind.

[Erik]

When viewing an RFID 'device', most of what you see are the 'antennas'. There are actually two of them.

The first receives power from the reader by induction, and really isn't so much an antenna, but the 'secondary winding' of a crude transformer. This is why the tags require no 'on board' power source. As the power requirements of the tag are exceedingly tiny, this works great. The tag 'wakes up' and begins transmitting when power is received from this winding... it's usually made of foil, or a printed circuit board trace.

The second is the actual data transmission antenna, and looks similar to the secondary coil. The two are often inter wound.

Tags vary a lot in their physical appearance due to space concerns and the individual application... but they all work much the same.

Read the Wikipedia RFID entry, it gives a sound overview of the technology.

Erik

[Jim Yanik]

Erik wrote in news: [e-mail]:

if you had a lot of RFID cards and tags in your wallet,would a reader be able to separate them when they were all interrogated? or would it come up with hash?

BTW,that E-Pass transponder you may have on your windshield to pay highway tolls is also interrogated and counted at certain major intersections(no funds transfers) in your city,as they are now being used to measure road traffic. you can look up at the poles at an intersection and see the rectangular flat antennas.

[Pete C.]

I believe that they are confusing "smart card" which is a contact type technology and "RFID" which is non contact. Smart cards have a small patch on the card with a semi circular grid of gold plated electrical contacts which should not be confused with an antenna. RFID antennas are rarely visible externally and when they are visible through some transparent covering they are a coil shape not an array of individual contacts.

RFID does have a collision detection and avoidance scheme so yes, a reader could read multiple RFID cards/tags in close proximity to each other.

[krw]

My Amex card is transparent, making the antennas readily visible. Yes, they're loops (seven concentric loops, about 1" x 2", with what looks like a shorting bar across the far end - no contacts).

[Erik]

Pallets of materials with hundreds, or even thousands of tags can be driven through special readers, and all the tags read almost instantaneously.

I remember reading where the goal of some large retailers is the ability to push a cart full of goods through a reader, and have an instant itemized total. Now that the price of RFID tags gone way down, they are getting close to that goal. (One major retailer pushing hard for all this has the initials "WM")

The tags will also play a big role in inventory control, and theft prevention, as they are all read again passing out the door... where the store computer cross checks to see if the items were in fact purchased.

Tagged items are able to be serialized and later traced all the way back to the store (of mfg for all that matter). If the item was purchased with a credit card, the buyer is also easily ID'd. We're not talking big ticket items only here either, this means anything tagged, right down to packs of gum. This traceability works as long as the tag remains readable, and the appropriate records are kept... could be decades or longer.

This is just a few of the highlights of RFID, go Googleing for a while if you really want gory details.

Can you say "Big Brother"?

There, I knew you could!

Erik

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm waiting for McDonalds to scan your EZ Pass, and use that, combined with sales data, to offer you premiumes and coupons based on your buying habits.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

BTW,that E-Pass transponder you may have on your windshield to pay highway tolls is also interrogated and counted at certain major intersections(no funds transfers) in your city,as they are now being used to measure road traffic. you can look up at the poles at an intersection and see the rectangular flat antennas.

[Stormin Mormon]

Somehow, they do that already. Probably much like radios or TV with different channels.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

if you had a lot of RFID cards and tags in your wallet,would a reader be able to separate them when they were all interrogated? or would it come up with hash?

[Stormin Mormon]

Wal Ahl Bee.....

I've heard various stories. IIRC, RFID in Gillette disposable shavers, some how remember about that.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Pallets of materials with hundreds, or even thousands of tags can be driven through special readers, and all the tags read almost instantaneously.

I remember reading where the goal of some large retailers is the ability to push a cart full of goods through a reader, and have an instant itemized total. Now that the price of RFID tags gone way down, they are getting close to that goal. (One major retailer pushing hard for all this has the initials "WM")

The tags will also play a big role in inventory control, and theft prevention, as they are all read again passing out the door... where the store computer cross checks to see if the items were in fact purchased.

Tagged items are able to be serialized and later traced all the way back to the store (of mfg for all that matter). If the item was purchased with a credit card, the buyer is also easily ID'd. We're not talking big ticket items only here either, this means anything tagged, right down to packs of gum. This traceability works as long as the tag remains readable, and the appropriate records are kept... could be decades or longer.

This is just a few of the highlights of RFID, go Googleing for a while if you really want gory details.

Can you say "Big Brother"?

There, I knew you could!

Erik

[Ed Pawlowski]

I had no problems in Europe with my regular cards. Just this week though, I received a "World Card" from Master card. I have no idea if it has an RFID or not. MC only says it is accepted around the world. Nor did they say why they replaced my old card.

[gregz]

The strip may burn, but a couple seconds in a microwave should fry it.

Greg