Electronic pickpocketing puts your credit cards at risk

11-26-2010 • WTSP TV10

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.

"If I just get kind of close to (a person's) back pocket or purse, where ever their wallet is, I can read their credit card numbers, expiration date, actually the whole tracking data," Augustinowicz said.

1 Comments in Response to Electronic pickpocketing puts your credit cards at risk

Comment by Justen Robertson

Entered on: 11/28/2010 12:02:17 PM

It's not "scary". All you need to prevent this attack is a 100-year-old piece of technology: a Faraday cage (of which one kind was advertised in the scare-article-slash-sales-piece). If anyone demands more than a couple bucks for such a device they're ripping you off, btw. It's just a metal lattice, sort of like a piece of tin foil with holes in it.

You can also destroy or disable RFIDs relatively easily. There are a variety of tutorials on this around the internet (check instructables.com). No guarantees your credit card will continue working after this.

Moral: don't fear technology, understand it and make it work for you.

Make a Comment (1) • Email Link • Send Letter to Editor