“Or hacks your phone with a portable machine, like they can cards?”
I watched a presentation by a former hacker who now works for Microsoft. He asked if anybody had a new credit card with a chip. Several people stood up. He pointed a device at them and told them their names and (if I recall) addresses. He said, the problem with the new security feature is they never ran it passed a hacker. “Give a person a portable phone and they say, ‘great, I can make calls.’ But give a portable phone to a hacker and he says, ‘gee, I wonder what else I can make it do.’”
The mindset of the engineer who designs something is different than the thief who wants to steal something. You need both to create a secure system.
I carry my credit cards in an RF blocking case. I used an RF blocking money belt when I visited a country known for petty theft crimes.
New technology means you should use new means of protecting your property.
As I near retirement and am thinking about starting up a home crafting business, I am planning to include RF blocking fabrics into some of my crafts.
That's BS. A chip card is dead without power and power can only be applied at the chip contacts. Power cannot be directed at the contacts without frying the subjected person.
Perhaps the people had some sort of NFC or RFID item. But credit cards do not use NFC or RFID.