[OT?] Destroying data on bank card

Use something else for DIY. Cut up your cards, kaing sure you cut the magnetic strip, the chips and the number. Then place half of the pieces in two separate bins.

Christian.

What do you do with the other half?

Sorry.

MBQ

Run a lighter along the mag strip. If you want I can send you a scraper?

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

You swallow them of course.

alex

And then dispose of in two separate toilets

If the magnet is strong, it will take out the strip data. I expect a record antistatic gun will do the chip. Until my replacement for my cracked cashcard arrives, I will not be experimenting, but will report back. The embossed data and the card ID on the signature strip are enough to be fraudulent, but normally when the following card is used, the other card is disabled by the supplier. As has been said points cards are easy to get, so easy that most of the skimmers used to use them as blanks. With the phasing out of magnetic strips for transactive use, it appears that more card fraud is committed via the internet, phone, or mail order.

Sandpaper is your friend.

I'd use a scraper of some kind.

Either a trimming knife blade, or a plastic card (e.g. a credit card)

Destroying the magnetic strip won't gain you anything if the embossed account number is still readable.

Sammy wrote

That is only part of the problem, the other part is the numbers embossed on the card. While the expiry date would normally be obsolete, its often possible to guess the new one that is on the card that replaced it.

So, while its easy enough to remove the magnetic stripe and signature strip, its harder to get rid of the embossed numbers and still have a useful bit of plastic.

Hard to say if you dont say what you use them for.

Nope.

Normally, but its hard to be sure that the data cant be extracted by someone who cares enough to go to the trouble. The card isnt much use without the pin tho.

Its better to just remove the entire magnetic stripe.

Sandpaper is better or run it against an abrasive wheel or wire brush on an angle grinder. Bit risky finger wise tho.

The only way to be sure on the cheap is not to use the cards. Blank cards are not that expensive.

Arno