RFID credit card fraud

you probably have a credit card equipped with it technology designed to make paying for transactions faster and more convenient sounds like a no lose proposition that is until the contact five investigators discover this tool can make you more of a target to pick pocketers and even more alarming they can steal without even touching your credit card contact five investigator Katie LaGrone joins us with this eye-opening special report Katie Kelly Jim every major credit card company is now offering what they call these contactless cards essentially it lets you make a purchase with just the wave of your credit card the problem some saké cards with that symbol make you vulnerable to an untraceable crime Walt agustina wits is an ordinary Joe I mean you are exposing what he calls an extraordinary threat see we're able to pick that up I think that's crazy but before we can explain the reasons behind this and to think that you're so vulnerable you need to know more about what's inside here it's called Radio Frequency Identification it's technology the size of a grain of rice but it's so powerful it can track people and things around the globe and most recently RFID chips like this have been implanted in credit cards so you can pay without ever sliding your plastic you know to me is pretty scary and that's what has Walt Agostino it's more than just a little nervous putting it on a credit card where it's actually turning out transmitting your credit card number that I think that's a very bad idea a former insurance IT guy Agustina wits is now devoting himself to sounding the alarm over what can happen when RFID and credit cards they can broadcast your information without your knowledge his company identity stronghold sells products like these that shield information transmitted through RFID among his clients the federal government from Homeland Security FAA TSA some might look at you Walt and say you're just in it for the money you're trying to you're scaring people into buying we hope we're scaring people because if you don't know that danger is there you don't know they're protect yourself so if the credit card companies aren't gonna tell the people we are it just looks like I'm walking down the street and this is my laptop right Walt sets out to prove what he claims it's that faster in the WPTV newsroom we quickly find our first victim hi this is Rachelle with newsChannel 5 reporter Rachelle Ritchie doesn't know is inside waltz a shopping bag is a gadget that can read the RFID chip embedded in her credit card which means Walt just got her digits seriously without ever touching her card it's icky wet like a second descent boom and then you had it so that's pretty surprising that bothers me a lot you're already there they can do that all of my wallet in my back pocket Wow my mother's gone I mean that is the worst it monitors up to 300 feet meet taraj Kothari he designs rfid technology which is why we didn't expect to hear him say this is dangerous I I agree with you Kothari says credit cards with rfid technology should not be so easy to hack in fact he says solving the problem already exists and would cost credit card companies just pennies to fix the whole card is 30 cents therefore they can remove all the bad card give them a new card and they solve the problem major credit card companies we contacted insists cards embedded with RFID chips or a secure as traditional credit cards card members are not held liable for fraudulent charges and even if a card number is stolen fees can't make an internet or phone purchase without that three digit security code on the back yes I'd like to place an order please only no one asked us for the code when we used rachelle Ritchie's digits to buy from a major retailer okay bye-bye thank you okay we just bought Rochelle a small red tote yeah how much was that so I know $22.90 wow that's um that's ridiculous it's an electronic pickpocket yeah that is scary so you think if consumers have a choice right now they should opt for a credit card that doesn't have this RFID technology if it's not protected that means I am not protected I I don't want to use it you might as well sit there and print your credit card number across your t-shirt and walk around with it cause it's a girl now you can get a credit card without RFID technology just contact your credit card company and explain you want a traditional card you can also keep the card you have and buy a shield that looks something like this it'll cost you about 20 bucks for a handful of them or you can take a look in your house and use good old-fashioned aluminum foil surprisingly Kelly Jim this will do the same thing a shield like this will do go wrap all my cards so is it easy for the thieves though to get a hold of that technology that can read the cards so easily is that really cheap and all that kind of stuff yes surprisingly absolutely in fact we found some of these gadgets online you can buy all the equipment you need for about a hundred bucks it's that so we're what viewers to know this though so they can go ahead and take the action they need to protect themselves oh boy everybody's gonna be wanting to know more about this story yeah yeah the kitchen drawer and get out the foil yeah how I opening thank you very much

Channel: WPTV News - FL Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast

Views: 34,842

Keywords: local, news

Id: RGt7K_2DKLA

Length: 5min 48sec (348 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2011