Posted on 12/04/2006 11:33:52 AM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
No-swipe credit cards that use radio waves to relay their data put consumers at increased risk of identity theft, Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) said Sunday.
"These cards may be convenient, but they're a double-edged sword," said Schumer, D-N.Y.
Tens of millions of no-swipe credit cards have been issued in the past year. When a customer uses the credit card to make a purchase, the card is processed by a radio frequency identification reader operated by the retailer.
Schumer said thieves can equip themselves with the radio frequency readers to steal information from the credit cards, which are being marketed heavily as time savers.
"All you need to be is within a couple of feet of the customer," Schumer said. "You may as well put your credit card information on a big sign on your back."
But JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation's second-largest financial services provider and its premier credit card issuer, has maintained the no-swipe method provides the same level of security as the traditional swiping method, which involves reading a magnetic strip on the back of the card. The cards use encrypted data, it said.
"The card and the reader in the terminal are safe and secure, and the transaction is handled the same way that credit cards are managed today," Thomas O'Donnell, senior vice president of Chase cards services, said when the company announced the launch of its blink cards last year.
Schumer, who held a news conference on a busy Manhattan street corner Sunday amid holiday shoppers, called for regulations to require higher encryption standards that would make the cards more secure.
In addition, Schumer said contracts for the no-swipe credit cards should have warning boxes disclosing "the known weaknesses of the technology."
"Holiday shoppers need to be extremely careful with their credit cards," he said, "and these companies need to step up their efforts to protect people from identity theft."
A telephone call to Visa International Inc., the nation's largest credit card brand, wasn't immediately returned.
And Schumer had no problem "swiping" Michael Steele's credit info.
And we might as well get used to seeing him.
Well I tell you what chuckles, don't get one then and stop worrying about me. MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS!
There's no real increase in the risk over that posed by the magnetic stripe. It is not uncommon for unscrupulous retail employees to set up their own reader to capture the data from the magnetic stripe; here in Canada the banks and police regularly post warnings that consumers should be on the lookout for clerks who swipe the card twice.
Bingo!
Maybe if he'd get a law passed to put real penalties, like significant jail time, on identity theft, we'd all be better off.
If you are carrying two of these radio cards, then who controls which card is being charged?
But in that case you gave them your card. Isn't the risk here that someone just walking NEXT to you could swipe your information without you ever knowing?
We need a shielded wallet for these things, so they are only readable when we want them to be.
Think of it this way, it's like walking around with a huge sign carrying all your credit card info.
Has Chucky been reading my posts on FR? :O :O :O Hey Chuck, read this: Quit being such a leftist. Stop trying to raise my taxes to fund your pet socialist programs. Don't steal people's guns, and don't support the legalization of INFANTCIDE, which you may know as ABORTION.
There we go. :) And also, at least have the courtesy to cite the source of your thoughts Charles. ;)
Since he is a horrible, disgusting Demonrat breathing must therefore be an obnoxious and abhorrent behavior to engage in.
I suggest you all stop breathing or risk being damned by true Patriot Freepers!
I guess your post would be "prior art" for my wallet patent.
Chuckie has to spend alot of time swiping with the manure that come through his lips.
Are you saying the tinfoil crowd was ahead of the curve? :)
I have a feeling when young Schmuckie took How to be a Good Socialist Leader 101 this was one of the early lessons in PR what were given. Poor Schmuckie hasn't really progressed much beyond that class. Although that's probably better for all of us.
SPITZ READIES KO PUNCH VS. HEVESI
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
Thanks for the ping!
Hes another one of those "Just lookin out for the little American morons" type a guys. Libs need constant crisis or we would realize they are not needed.
Thank you, Chunky Shumer. Don't know what we'd do without you.
Oh, and there is something you can do besides berate companies about identity theft...
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