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MasterCard To Distribute RFID Credit Cards
wellington writes "Reuters is reporting that MasterCard expects to have 4 million "pay pass" cards in circulation by year's end. These new cards will be equipped with a radio-frequency chip that allows customers to pay for purchases by simply waving their cards at readers posted near cash registers or gas pumps." The cards, previously covered on Slashdot, were announced earlier this year.
No more shoplifting now. They just scan my creid card as I walk out the door, after they scanned the merchandise that was in my backpack. What has the world come to?
MasterCard RFID Credit Card: free
Checking out at the grocery store without signing your name or entering a pesky PIN number: effortless
Having your account drained by a 12 year old who bought a high-gain RF antenna off eBay: priceless
Not only will thieves be able to capture your CC#, they will be able to do it without you knowing it! Think of the possibilities! Subways, buses, crowded trains, elevators, escalators, and other public places! I guess that gives me another reason to not leave home and to spend all day reading slashdot about how others have had their identity stolen.
-Palal
about people walking through the mall with rfid readers? Will /. readers line their wallets with tinfoil? :-)
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Quick, start selling Tinfoil hats!!!!.. for WALLET!!!
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
These new 4th generation RFIDS (or 4GRFIDs as known in the industry) broadcast at a strength 64.2W (1.9 amps/hz) Though it not might seem like much, the signal is detectable by a dime sized reader at over 3000 yards and does not require line of sight. This reader can be easily assembled by about $13 dollars worth of parts (diodes,wires,etc) from RadioShack. There are instructions on the internet that are so simple, a child capable of drawing crude stick figures of his mommy and daddy with crayons could assemble one, link it to an offshore bank account and be draining bank accounts in less than thirty minutes.
So, unless someone with a scanner embedded into his/her pants bumps into you, I imagine you will be OK.
It's not the scanners I'm worried about. It's the guys who *call* it a scanner, and are just really happy to see me -- THEM I worry about.
What's best is when they put the sensor on the inside of a window at about ass-height. If your RFID card is in your wallet in your back pocket, all you have to do is press your ass up against the window to get into the building.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
No. You'd have to be bats to use sonar.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
...Will it ask you which of the 4 cards in your wallet you want to pay with? ...
Simple - the input dev detects all cards and asks which one to charge.
More important is not to mix it with the cards of the next customer.
Far more important is what all Platinum card owners are gonna do? They have to wave it into your face, right? I guess that alone may kill the whole long-range idea.
Any bright ideas how to give them a reason to show off the cards?
While working as a clerk I would constantly come across unsigned cards. I'd tell the customer I would like to see id to make sure the card was at least owned by someone with the same name as they had. They would invariably reply
C:"its ok ill sign it now"
Me: "But then its bound to match"
C:?
The true range for that power is *much* more than 3000 yards. Using "some surplus telephone house wire" this amateur received signals from 1531 miles away at 12 milliwatts. Can you imagine what a true professional could to to your 64.2W RFID?
I have run into the embossed/carbon copy scheme recently:
Buying beer on the golf course when I forgot cash. It's a life saver. The cart girl takes my card rolls a carbon copy of it, I sign, she gets tipped, I get tipsy and play like $hit. Great fun!
I only mod up parents of "mod parent up" posts...
To prevent physical stealing of personal RFID cards, you'll get an RFID chip implanted in your forehead. Which means that you can pay by banging your head against the cash desk.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.