Gizmodo: Credit Cards

Credit Card Companies Bully Discovery, Mythbusters Into Axing Segment on RFID Vulnerabilities

Sean Fallon — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Speaking to an audience at the recent HOPE hackercon event, Mythbusters' Adam Savage describes a harrowing conference call in which most, if not all of the big name credit card companies bullied the Discovery Channel into axing a show involving RFID vulnerabilities. Adam noted that he got chills just thinking about it and claims that Tory still gets "white" when describing the conversation. I suppose anyone would feel a little intimidated (and probably pee their pants a little) when faced by the combined legal power of some of the most powerful businesses in the world. [Wired via Boing Boing]

Visa and Eight Banks Test Real-Time SMS Notifications For Transactions

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:40:00 EDT

Visas and eight banks ("PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity in Canada") are testing real-time SMS notifications whenever your card makes one of a few types of transactions. The 2000 pilot beta customers can pick alerts for ATM cash withdrawals, internet or telephone charge, an out-of-country charge or a charge that's over a pre-defined amount. You can choose to have these alerts go to your phone or your email (if you're cheap like us and don't want to burn up all your messages), which you can then immediately use to alert Visa to any fraudulent activity. Great idea or greatest idea? You be the judge. [Slashphone]

iPhone Tip: Put Club Cards On Your Phone As Pictures

Jason Chen — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:30:00 EDT

While this might not work for cards you have to slide through a magnetic reader, the idea is definitely sound. Just take pictures of your club cards (Costco, Safeway, Blockbuster), import them into your iPhone as an album, and trim down the number of cards you have to carry in your wallet. When you need to use a card, just whip out your phone and show it to the cashier, hoping that they don't get too uppity about your cleverness. If they do, just throw your phone at their head à la Naomi Campbell. ['t Is Goud via Lifehacker]

$3,200 EeePC with 32GB Solid State Drive Now on eBay

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:10:00 EDT

Ah, the Asus Eee PC, the little computer that can be modded to do anything, from stealing all your money in an ATM to grabbing all your money on the internet. This one will snatch $3,200 from your account if you want to buy it on eBay, with all the mods except for the 3G card: a 32GB Patriot XT solid state drive (in addition to the included 8GB), a touchscreen and a bunch of other things, an Air Play card to transmit all your sound to any FM radio. Complete specs after the jump.

• 8gb solid state drive
• 32gb Patriot XT drive
• 2gb RAM
• Intel Wi-Fi A/B/G/N upgraded card
• 7" LCD with touchscreen
• Air Play installed so you can transmit all of your sound to an FM radio
• Custom copper heatsink installed because it's overclocked
• Bluetooth adapter
• 2 USB hubs so all the USB devices can hook up to the Eee PC
• web cam
• speakers
• microphone
• 3 USB ports
• one external VGA port so you can hook up an external monitor
• Windows XP Professional SP3 with all the drivers installed and tested
• Screen resolution is set a 1024x768 with the hacked Video Driver

All good, even if the motherboard now looks like the Millennium Falcon's guts. [eBay—Thanks Moe]

Crooks Rig ATM with Eee PC to Steal Credit Card Info

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:30:00 EDT

In yet another demonstration of the never-ending hacking possibilities of the ASUS Eee PC laptop, three criminals in Brazil rigged an ATM with the little low cost computer to grab credit card information and personal information numbers to clone cards. Smart, except that one of them was a total moron.

The three men were specialized in cloning credit cards at ATMs, always with the same method. As you can see in the video, the first opens one of the machines, then another one comes to help him with the installation of a black Eee PC. Then they always proceeded to disable the rest of the machines, so clients were forced to use the rigged ATM. All this while they were being recorded by bank security cameras, of course.

The bank manager noticed that the door was forced and all the ATMs were disabled except for one, so he checked the security video and discovered what happened the night before. He immediately alerted the police, who started to search among the usual suspects. It didn't last long: Idiotic Crook Number One went to a police station to denounce a car accident and the three of them—who had a previous criminal history for bank assault in other parts of the country—were aprehended shortly thereafter. [Globo TV—thanks Rafael]

Kenyans Can Now Max Out Their Credit Cards Wirelessly

Charlie White — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:15:00 EST

Those poor Africans. When they want to use their credit cards to go on a spending spree at Bloomingdale's, they just can't do it because there aren't enough phone lines to handle all those credit card transactions. That's where this Siemens BiasharaPhone MTT 1581 might bring African countries, specifically Kenya, into the 21st century.

It not only lets the few dozen people in that country who have credit cards swipe them in this device, but it also prints out a receipt and sends the charge data via the cell network to the mothership. Kidding aside, this might actually make life safer in Africa, eliminating the need to transport cash, a dangerous proposition since not that much cash is around anyway.

But what about the dearth of credit card holders on that continent? Given the nature of the subprime credit card companies here in the States, we're thinking there might be a rush to blanket Africa with credit cards now. [Swift Global, via bb Gadgets]

Joining 21st Century, Visa Micro Tag Lubricates Payment, But Not Your Ass

Charlie White — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:42:19 EDT

Credit card companies are dragging their old hairy asses into an uncertain future, finally and begrudgingly offering the convenience of payments without signature to locations everywhere. Here's the latest evidence of that from bloodsucking Visa, with its Visa Micro Tag that lets you make micropayments without touching anything, where you nonchalantly wave this sky-blue keyfob and stave off payment for those burgers and fries until the gombeen man comes a-knocking once again.

Oh, you'll pay for this indirectly; merchants will have to pay for these little trinkets, too—but at least the mini-RFID transmitters will further speed up purchases under $25 that used to require the exchange of filthy, dangerous cash. Never mind that we had a device similar to this stuck to our car's rear window to pay for gas ... eleven years ago. [Geek Zone]

The Credit Card of the Future?

Mark Wilson — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:10:41 EDT

In The Future, no one will die and everyone will be skinny, but we will still all have horrible credit card debt. Hence Jacob Palmborg designing [big voice] The Credit Card of the Future.

While it's strictly a concept, the credit card uses RFID that's linked to every account you own. It not only allows you to easily control purchases, but the card tracks said purchases and projects your economic status as a result. Plus, the unit features biometric security that could realize the potential of carrying various forms of ID...should the government ever let that happen.

The concept is good—now let's attach the phone and call it a day/real invention.

The Credit Card... [yanko]

iCache: All Your Credit Cards, One Device, Fingerprint Security

Charlie White — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:10:40 EST

Finally, somebody takes a step toward untangling this credit card mess of pins, poor security and too-fat wallets. It's iCache, letting you register all your credit card numbers online and then to hell with all that plastic—you carry this one device that has all your credit cards' magnetic strip signatures on it.

Unlock it with a fingerprint, dial up the credit card you want to use, and it's ready to be scanned. Neat. However, we may not see this on the market for another year or two. – Charlie White

Product Page [iCache, via UberGizmo]

The Sidekick 3 May Erase Your Credit Cards

Jason Chen — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 19:30:37 EDT

Ah, the Sidekick 3, with its IMing, emailing, texting and credit card erasing capabilities. Wait, credit card erasing?

A couple guys started experimenting with the SK3 once they found a pen sticking to it when they removed the former from a bag. They went on to find that the magnetic latch that allows the SK to do the "cool flippy thing" is really powerful. When open, it can hold up a regular table knife. When closed, it's still able to hold up a fork.

So what does this do to that credit card sitting next to the Sidekick in your pocket? It obliterates the stored data. These guys took an expired card and ran it through a terminal to test whether it was recognized—it was. After sticking the card up next to the closed SK3's magnet, subsequent swipes produced absolutely nothing on the terminal. It wasn't even recognized as a valid card.

Someone ought to go try this with the card inside of a wallet and see how thick of a wallet is necessary to protect your cards, driver's licenses and badges. For now, you may want to keep them in separate pockets.– Jason Chen

Sidekick 3 Warning: Sidekick 3's Magnet Will Erase Your Credit Card in Under a Second [The Internet Patrol - Thanks Phil!]

Flaunt Your Wealth With The AMEX Butterfly Card

Gizloco — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 16:49:42 EDT

It's no Black Card, but it's still something you can whip it out to impress passersby. The American Express Butterfly Card is a standard credit card that's available to members of AMEX's Gold Card members. What makes it so special, what makes our hearts sing, is that it folds in half, letting you store it inside of a svelte, metallic case the size of a keychain.

You can tell by the PR pictures on the AMEX Web site that the Butterfly Card is meant to be some sort of status symbol. And of course, who doesn't have friends who would be impressed by a folding piece of colored plastic?

At the end of the day, it's probably nothing more than a gimmick, but as we've seen time and time again, gimmicks can take off if properly managed. – Nicholas Deleon

Butterfly from American Express [American Express via OhGizmo!]