How to Know If There Is an RFID in My Credit Card

I thought this was a very good thing to know & so I looked into it. One thing that bothered me was the fact that alot of CC companys don''t tell you, they just put it into your CC. Mine didn't but one that was just sent to me by "Turbo Tax" did. but the "I. Owe S." kept my refund lol so eff'em

The card reader --- known as a PayPass reader --- scans the card and processes a transaction without a signature. Unfortunately, high-tech thieves have discovered ways of using this technology to steal consumer information and to commit identity theft

full E-How on it


Just thought with the way the world is going right now "Big Brother" didn't need one more tool to look over me.

I have a RFID in one of my transport cards (AUS), and i can tell by just shifting the card in sunlight, you can see where it is placed, pretty cool.

all of my cards have a symbol on them.. that's how I can tell ..

reply to post by dedpope


I used to "crack" chips for my clients to test their security, so here's a real simple way of finding out what is inside (I used to do this with integrated circuits, ASIC and embedded processors, etc. but then I also did die polarization macrophotography and in one case used a STEM).

Go to your dentist, if you have a good one, get him/her to X-Ray the card. That will isolate the location of anything inside. Once you find something, do a detailed (macro X-Ray) and you should be able to tell what you have in there. If you want to find the frequency of the RFID (if it's in there) used a low power RF sweep generator (Plessey makes a nice one that's PLL and interfaces easily to a small RF Linear amp) and then use a scanner to see what comes back out of the card. It's a lot like searching for "bugs" in a house, you "tickle" the transmitter while a scanner watches for the information burst.

But, if you want to just be a little more careful, rather than expend money on "researching" what's inside, just get a nice little lead cased card holder. That way it can be tickled, read or tracked in there is an RFID, unless you take the card out of the case.

Cheers - Dave

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle

But, if you want to just be a little more careful, rather than expend money on "researching" what's inside, just get a nice little lead cased card holder. That way it /can/ be tickled, read or tracked in there is an RFID, unless you take the card out of the case.

Cheers - Dave

edit on 3/18.2012 by bobs_uruncle because: (no reason given)

Don't you mean can't be?

Originally posted by AlchemicalBinoculars

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle

But, if you want to just be a little more careful, rather than expend money on "researching" what's inside, just get a nice little lead cased card holder. That way it /can/ be tickled, read or tracked in there is an RFID, unless you take the card out of the case.

Cheers - Dave

edit on 3/18.2012 by bobs_uruncle because: (no reason given)

Don't you mean can't be?

Yeah, duh, brain fart, it happens LOL. We engineers and technobots, we can't spell, that's why we have to remember to plug in our spellchecking memory expansion and application chip!

Cheers - Dave

Put it in the microwave for 2-3 seconds.wont matter if you know it or not then.It will be handled either way.

Originally posted by Bullypulpit
Put it in the microwave for 2-3 seconds.wont matter if you know it or not then.It will be handled either way.

does that really work without screwing up the card?

reply to post by LittleBlackEagle


Mine still work and a chip can't take it...it fries into a little black bubble

Nearly all credit cards now contain RFID chips....and almost ALL of them are encrypted data. Whomever said that you could put together a scanner to "steal" this information is an uniformed idiot. That was true maybe 10 years ago...but not in today's financial market. Almost everyone uses 256 bit military encryption on their data.

It still needs to be fried...the mag strip is plenty

Originally posted by Bullypulpit
It still needs to be fried...the mag strip is plenty

Fry your pretty little smartphone while you're at it. More data is collected from that device than all your credit cards combined.

Originally posted by CIAGypsy

Originally posted by Bullypulpit
It still needs to be fried...the mag strip is plenty

Fry your pretty little smartphone while you're at it. More data is collected from that device than all your credit cards combined.

K

See,that's the problem with the a*€holes who haunt these boards...a simple question was asked about RFID chips in credit cards...several good answers were offered then some chump wants to ride his hobby horse in and offer an off topic comment about phones and data gathering...nothing to do with chip detection and deactivation...if people have issues with items,then start a thread about their bitch-of-the-week

Originally posted by Bullypulpit
See,that's the problem with the a*€holes who haunt these boards...a simple question was asked about RFID chips in credit cards...several good answers were offered then some chump wants to ride his hobby horse in and offer an off topic comment about phones and data gathering...nothing to do with chip detection and deactivation...if people have issues with items,then start a thread about their bitch-of-the-week

second

Run your credit card through your microwave and fry the chip .

Manually entering your cards number by a clerk will still work.

With a paypass when you dispute the bill and charges , make sure you have your reciept with the correct date, before the charges.

It's not your fault , the card doesn't work , right? ( wink, wink.)

CYA.

All electronic equipment have a piece of test equipment used to make sure the equipment does what it is built to do. The test equipment is purchased by manufactures and repair personel and any person who knows what they are looking for, what it does and where to look, also a manual that will teach you how to. Laws don't move as fast as the industry.

I used to make credit cards for a living
any card that is classed as "contactless" will have a sign on the face of the card and like was already pointed out you can see the aerial running around the face of the card a few mm from the edge
The other type that is also put into card is a small chip in the corner of the card however these are never used in credit card only security type passes to open doors etc
there really not as easy to scam as the media like to hype up the card will only work if its scanned from about 4cm away you would never be able to just walk pass someone and "clone" all there info the thinkness of you wallet is enough to stop it happening

The risk inside your credit card

Be aware too that the industry is going to a new feature with cards called "EMV" which stands for Europay, Mastercard, Visa. It is supposed to be more secure. You can read about it here:

EMV on Wikipedia

A U.S. Marshall that I talk too, took a drill and drilled out the RFID chip in his credit card.

reply to post by Mahatmacoat


You said pretty much what I was going to say.
I've worked many years in the security field, on access control and CCTV systems in particular. As already suggested, the read range of these RFID tags is very small, usually about 3" - 4" max. And yes, whilst some nerdy geeky university guys did demonstrate that cards "could" be read from a kit assembled and carried in a small backpack, the likelihood of this happening in the real world is practically nil.
Many thieves stealing card data prefer to use the old false front on the ATM, with a card reader storing card details to an onboard memory card and a pinhole camera videoing people as they key in their PIN.