wallets and RFID

kaptainmarc

kaptainmarc

kaptainmarc

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With all the new touch cards and fancy technology we have these days, Are any of you protecting yourself from scanners and what not?
or do you think its just people being paranoid

been looking at getting myself a nice card holder with cash strap, just trying to find a nice one for a reasonable price
firstly to have a less bulky wallet
secondly added protection both cosmetic and from fraud
and finally they look nicer.

what wallet are you using?
what are your must haves in a wallet?
 
Based on the faff of trying to actually intentionally use a contactless card, someone casually scanning it from a distance as I walk past isn't high on my worry list.

On a serious note, even if you've got two or more RFID cards in your wallet then surely neither will scan properly?
 
Russinating said:
Based on the faff of trying to actually intentionally use a contactless card, someone casually scanning it from a distance as I walk past isn't high on my worry list.

On a serious note, even if you've got two or more RFID cards in your wallet then surely neither will scan properly?
Click to expand...

I recently deployed contactless payment terminals at work and have been doing some testing with it. It's as secure as someone physically stealing your wallet from the street as you walk past.

You can't imply read a chip from a distance, you must be within a certain close distance, so close that you'd very easily know if someone was trying something as they'd need to have the reader on their end exposed in order for a successful read.

If you have an NFC phone then try it, enable NFC and see how close it needs to be to your card or wallet before the NFC reader kicks off.
 
mrk said:
I recently deployed contactless payment terminals at work and have been doing some testing with it. It's as secure as someone physically stealing your wallet from the street as you walk past.

You can't imply read a chip from a distance, you must be within a certain close distance, so close that you'd very easily know if someone was trying something as they'd need to have the reader on their end exposed in order for a successful read.

If you have an NFC phone then try it, enable NFC and see how close it needs to be to your card or wallet before the NFC reader kicks off.
Click to expand...

If someone can physically lift the wallet from your pocket without you noticing then they could get close enough for the milliseconds it takes for a card to scan without you noticing surely?
 
tom_e said:
If someone can physically lift the wallet from your pocket without you noticing then they could get close enough for the milliseconds it takes for a card to scan without you noticing surely?
Click to expand...

Which is my point. You would (or someone else, or CCTV...) spot some plonker walking around with a device in his hands randomly touching people's pockets. Contactless may be just that but the distance is so close they may as well be touching and that's with no barriers between either surface.

Edit*
Also how would the funds (assuming they do steal up to the maximum of £20) be processed? It has to be banked so there's a trail. It can be traced from source to destination. If this really was an issue it would have been documented and publicised long ago.
 
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I saw a metal wallet the other day, I think it was designed by Zippo and they mentioned it was made of metal to protect you from such things.

The thief has to be pretty darn close.
 
Yeah I have a metal wallet, it's mostly to protect your phone from going crazy because you placed it on top of the wallet and it gets confused when the BFC reader kicks in.
 
mrk said:
I recently deployed contactless payment terminals at work and have been doing some testing with it. It's as secure as someone physically stealing your wallet from the street as you walk past.

You can't imply read a chip from a distance, you must be within a certain close distance, so close that you'd very easily know if someone was trying something as they'd need to have the reader on their end exposed in order for a successful read.

If you have an NFC phone then try it, enable NFC and see how close it needs to be to your card or wallet before the NFC reader kicks off.
Click to expand...

All you need to do is crank up the power on the card reader. The chips are powered by the reader itself, so with a good power source you can read them from a lot further away than the 10cm spec.

This device makes it work up to 3ft from your phone. Larger distances are possible.
http://flomio.com/shop/nfc-readers/nfc-antenna/
 
Yeah while those add-ons exist and have done for a bit, I still fail to see the risk factor here. Show me a a documented case where this system has been exploited and I'll be in the tinfoil wagon spiffy!

This is a non issue on the whole and more complex to pull off than what the internet makes it out to be as usual :p

People should be more concerned about the thousands of "ghost" mobile phone masts that have been found throughout the UK and USA over recent years.
 
Can't say it's something I particularly worried about. I take my card out when I need to pay, and having tested using my phone's NFC through my wallet in various pockets, it doesn't register so someone touching my pocket with a reader won't work. I just have a standard card wallet that folds in 2 with an area of 4 cards on each side, and a slot for cash. It's leather an relatively thick (1cm?).

My oyster card is in a separate wallet (as it has my picture card as well) so I don't have card clash with that either.
 
Not concerned about this in the slightest if I'm honest - I suspect anyone trying to read my cards would just get a bunch of card clash anyway as I have two contactless bank cards and an Oyster card.

I'd be interested if there was a normal looking wallet available that allowed my oyster card to be in a section that was shielded from my other cards so I don't have to remove it every time I go through ticket gates though.
 
I only got mine today first one I have had like it, maybe I shouldn't read so much internet drivel of people saying loads of people are getting scanned
 
Doesn't concern me at all. You're protected from fraudulent Contactless purchases anyway so there's no issue there. Plus I have a few cards in my wallet with RFIDs (bank card, work smart card, old uni smart card) so the chances are someone trying to steal my bank card wirelessly would just end up with useless data anyway.

Incidentally, I didn't even know my old uni card had an RFID chip in it. It was after when I got my Nexus 4, put it down on top of my wallet and it made a noise that I eventually realised.
 
Not worried about it at all.
It's £20 max, you have to be very close, theirs a trail and it's guaranteed like a direct debit.

I also use a metal wallet, which may it may nit block it. http://www.myfireti.com/
Not a fan of there one new design now. They used to have plain and other designs.
 
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