Credit card fraud can hit you suddenly, or only be discovered over time, but it’s always unexpected. I recently had more than my fill of this costly inconvenience, when two credit cards were hacked and used against my will in the same week. Thankfully, both credit cards offered full fraud protection, so I was safe from the more than $1500 in charges that had illegally been placed with my card. But the most perplexing thing is that the credit cards never left my possession. After some research I discovered that many technology-savvy criminals have found a new way to pirate your credit card information: portable readers that can lift your information near where you are making a legitimate purchase, and then create a fraudulent card to use on their personal spending sprees. Modern technology offers many advances beneficial to society, but this isn’t one of them. Credit cards have become one of the primary ways people manage and spend their money, utilized with much more frequency than a burdensome and time-sucking checkbook during transactions. But if a card isn’t safe in your pocket, where would it ever be?
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have developed a system that may take the power out of the hands of these virtual pickpockets. It’s a virtual ‘on/off’ switch, easily enough implemented in the contactless credit cards that are gaining in popularity. Marlin Mickle, a professor of Engineering and the executive director of the RFID center For Excellence claims this is a “simple and very inexpensive” solution to integrate, so concerned consumers could be seeing them as a normal element of their credit cards very shortly.
The ‘on/off’ toggle would be implemented through the integration of new electronic circuitry in the contactless credit card, giving consumers the option to have their card turned off when not in use. And the best part is, it will happen automatically. The antenna-driven technology will automatically switch the card off when it’s in a pocket or wallet, or lying on any sort of surface that isn’t a card reader. Therefore, your credit card in your wallet would become an inert piece of plastic, impossible to pickpocket through use of a portable scanner.
Both of my compromised credit cards had to be replaced, and one of the accounts actually closed, to undo the damage caused by these credit card scammers. It took over a week to get replacement cards, I have to fill out paperwork, and I had to double check each purchase for validation. Only a small hassle in the grand scheme of things, but if I had been set to go on vacation, or had some sort of family or medical emergency, that lost use of my accounts may have had dire consequences. While the major banks and credit card companies have come under fire during the recent financial crisis, it is good to see there are independent professionals working to find solutions for the problems that impact individual consumers the most. My case was an inconvenience, but for others, credit card fraud can lead to identity theft and years of paperwork and legal fees. A service that tightens the security on all credit cards, while not costing the consumer any amount of time or money, is a great improvement. There will always be bad credit cards, with inaccurate offers and ridiculous finance charges. But having a card that can toggle on and off is something we should all benefit from.
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