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MasterCard To Distribute RFID Credit Cards

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the next-stop-rfid-theft dept.

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.

7 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. More fraud? by Hidyman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How long until crooks have portable swipers to get your card info?
    Hope you don't have your ID, they might get that info, too.

    --
    You can't take the sky from me ...
    1. Re:More fraud? by The+Clockwork+Troll · · Score: 5, Interesting
      On the flipside, the card never has to leave your physical possession.

      MC's gamble is that contactless payment will thus thwart more fraud than it facilitates, while simultaneously encouraging consumers to buy more goods and services, because the PayPass transaction is perceived to be "easier" than exchanging cash or presenting plastic.

      --

      There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
    2. Re:More fraud? by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was in Hong Kong a while back. They have something called an Octopus card, which is a RFID card that you can charge with dollars money. It's mostly used for mass transit, but you can use it in many stores, phones, parking, etc. It was pretty slick - you'd scan it and the reader would tell you how much you had left on it.

      The cool thing about it is you just add money to it as needed, it's not tied to any personal bank account or linked to you in any way. If you lose it, you are out of luck but even if someone could hijack your signal, the most you'd ever lose is what was on the card.

      Thinking of it just now, Hong Kong is pretty damn high-tech. You'd think if it was so easy to capture RFID, there'd be signs say "Be sure to protect your card" or something. There were plenty of signs everywhere warning you of various laws and dangers. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has one of these Octopus cards in Hong Kong (well, I read 95% of them do because noone has cars.)

    3. Re:More fraud? by gravij · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The time consuming part of a credit card transaction is where the cashier checks your signature against the one on the back of the card.
      I disagree. When I worked on a checkout in a supermarket I found the most time consuming part of the transaction was:
      • waiting for the customer to get search through their wallet for the right card,
      • swiping it a few times,
      • forgetting to press ok to confirm transaction,
      • waiting for the system to connect and authenticate,
      • waiting for the slip to print out.
      Handing the slip to the customer, them squiggling on it and me having a quick look to see if the two squiggles was not the hold up in the process.
  2. Conflicting RFIDs by Cytos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is not going to work well for anyone that has multiple RFIDs in their pockets. The current scanners are unable to dicipher between different cards. I already have two cards that use RFID technology and am forced to either pull one out when I want to scan in or awkwardly adjust my wallet so that only one is read. Either way it just defeats the intuitiveness of it if I spend more time trying to get the thing to work instead of just scanning the card I had to pull out anyways.

  3. Re:I have a bad feeling about this... by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 5, Interesting

    12-year-old busted after realizing that ISO/IEC 14443 uses two-factor authentication: Classic.

    The RF component of these cards is considerably more secure than even the magstripe component.

  4. PayPass vs. Octopus by fuzheado · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Here in Hong Kong, we've had one of the earliest and most successful RFID "touch card" payment systems in Octopus Card, but here's why I'm wary of PayPass:
    • It's a credit card, which means the limit is theoretically your credit limit of thousands of dollars. (Yes, I know they say it's for transactions under US $25, but do I trust their software?) The Octopus system is anonymous and stored value. You can only lose as much cash is in the card, which is typically less than US $15.

    • It doesn't display much information about the transaction. Octopus displays how much has been deducted, and how much is left on the card. For PayPass: "When you present your PayPass card to the terminal, you will see a series of lights on the terminal. When all the lights have lit, you will know that your card has been properly read. If you want a receipt, simply ask the clerk to give you one--it is available, should you request it."
    #include coolsig.h