Park Slope Credit Card/Bank Card Fraud!

jayce · January 2008

Oy.
the range is determined by the chip itself.
Armchair, the reader you post would be for higher powered RFID chips that a company might use for inventory and asset management. Things like fast pass tags are also longer range, higher powered RFID. Those also work tens of feet away.

The range of the chips embedded in cards is advertised at the centimeter range however it has been proven that it can be readable at greater distances and that it is possible to create your own "extender" which increases the range. Even without the extender it would not be hard for me to put a reader in my pocket and pass by you with your card in your pocket and get the info off it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/business/23card.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

note, it has been a year and a half since this story. the size is now enough to be embedded into something on the order of a PDA.

armchair_warrior · January 2008

i said i didn't bother to do any research hell or really read anything

.

i just skim a quick check on the net LOL.

armchair_warrior · January 2008

Kfir and Wool predicted that a rogue device can communicate with an ISO-14443 RFID tag from a distance of 40-50cm

http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~yash/kw-usenix06/index.html

better read

.

windowdressing · January 2008

it was a debit-card.

amity gal · January 2008

Over the summer, I got a call from the Chase Fraud Detection Department about someone trying to use my card to make about $4000 worth of purchases at a Walgreens (I don't remember where but somewhere out of state). Luckily, they did not approve the charge, canceled the card and issued me a new one.

For what it is worth, at the time I assumed that it was related to mail theft or tampering because I was having problems with that AND I never would have this card in my wallet. I always left it at home and it was for emergencies only. Therefore no one would have been able to copy it or electronically read any info from it.

Thankfully, I haven't had any problems since then.

I am sorry for those that have and would encourage you to make police reports. The more information the NYPD has, the better their investigation can be.

wtgirl · January 2008

It has happened in Kensington too (possibly along Church Avenue)

hollyhock · January 2008

I've been hit with this as well. The charges just happened yesterday and I just noticed them now when checking my statement online. If anyone has any thoughts on what local businesses might be involved (knowingly or unknowingly) please PM me. I'm trying to retrace the steps to figure out how this happened. Thanks.

dailyheights · January 2008

Wow. Can someone please clarify:

Did any scammed individual actually lose any money in this apparent rash of fraud? Don't nearly all credit and debit card companies reverse fraudulent charges immediately, without question?

I've been scammed three times in the last seven years, and never paid a cent on thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges.

I'm asking because the Brooklyn Papers has another "oh you bloggers" article, this time asking why nobody is reporting this to local police.

Um, OK... I've dutifully reported at least a dozen petty crimes in as many years, and not a single one of those reports has ever resulted in as much as a return phone call. I guess you could argue that reporting petty crimes is in the service of some "greater good"... but it's frankly not worth any individual's time to report credit card fraud to the local beat cop, especially if you know you will not be liable for fraudulent charges.

caseopele · January 2008

dailyheights wrote: Wow. Can someone please clarify:

Did any scammed individual actually lose any money in this apparent rash of fraud? Don't nearly all credit and debit card companies reverse fraudulent charges immediately, without question?

I've been scammed three times in the last seven years, and never paid a cent on thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges.

I'm asking because the Brooklyn Papers has another "oh you bloggers" article, this time asking why nobody is reporting this to local police.

Um, OK... I've dutifully reported at least a dozen petty crimes in as many years, and not a single one of those reports has ever resulted in as much as a return phone call. I guess you could argue that reporting petty crimes is in the service of some "greater good"... but it's frankly not worth any individual's time to report credit card fraud to the local beat cop, especially if you know you will not be liable for fraudulent charges.

Why am I not surprised by this article? :roll:

longtimesloper · January 2008

People have been reporting this to the police-don't they pay attention???

kosherdave · January 2008

Citibank recently (within the last month or 2?) sent out cards to (presumably) everyone with a debit card. This new card is blue and says pay pass in the right-hand side. It has a metal little circle thingie in the left-ish front side with what looks like a sunburst around it. That's the RFID. You can call citi and get a new card sent with no rfid if you want. I personally don't see myself using this technology right now... so I won't mind having the "old fashion" card sans rfid chip.

carmen · January 2008

^I have citibank and did not receive a new card, just as an fyi...

hollyhock · January 2008

Carmen wrote: ^I have citibank and did not receive a new card, just as an fyi...

Seems like some people did get the new cards and some did not. I got one in the mail from Citibank a number of months ago out of the blue... I did not request one. Maybe they were testing it out with some customers? I never used it so since I have to get a new card now thanks to this fraud business I have requested one without the chip since I don't use it anyway.

rogersma · January 2008

jayce wrote:
RFID chips, for those who aren't as knee-deep in it as I am, emit an all the time radio signal. It enables that "proximity purchase" that the tapping crap is all about. The problem is you can't shut the radio frequency off. This thing is always beaming its lil signal out there. People purport that its range is all of inches, but you spend any length of time playing with RFID and you know its more like feet.

I think it's pretty unlikely that RFID has anything to do with the Park Slope credit/debit card thefts. I work with RFID in an R&D lab (but have no particular commercial interest in them). The RFID in a credit card isn't "beaming its lil signal out there"...it has no battery. They are only activated when they come within very close range of a reader, which emits an electromagnetic signal that powers them.

A long-range RFID reader would be quite tricky for anyone but a very skilled professional to build at this point. On the other hand any geeky 14 year old with a soldering iron can build a card mag stripe scanner from instructions and parts off the Internet. Or you can buy them on the street for $25 or so. Or a dealer in stolen credit card numbers will give you one for free if you work in a restaurant or gas station and are willing to do second swipes.

There are a lot of questions about RFID going forward (in higher-value documents such as passports, for example) but for now, it's extremely unlikely it's the problem here. There are lots easier way to steal your data. And there's only one sure solution: If you don't want your credit card info swiped, don't use credit cards.

bina · January 2008

Subject: fraudulent charges on credit cards

got a regular $14.00 charge which first went un-noticed and then when I looked into it- we found out it emanated from russia!!!
put an end to that, then after buying gas at an out of slope gas station, our card was used in staten island to buy lots of $$$$ worth video stuff
but chase called us and we stopped that and lastly we too had people using our cc info in CT!!! do not know how all this works- mystified

scout · February 2008

Hate to bring this up again, but the same thing happened to me recently, so it's still going on. In my case it was a normal ATM/check card (no fancy device, just a swipe card), but it was used at some of the exact same places that other people have reported (the same gas stations across FLA).

I went to file a police report the other day, but they said I needed a notarized affidavit from my bank before they would file it. I'm going to call the Detective mentioned above tomorrow. If anyone has that list of businesses though, please please PM me, as it happened to two of my friends, and we are anxious to figure it out.

Thanks!

jayce · February 2008

rogersma wrote:
I think it's pretty unlikely that RFID has anything to do with the Park Slope credit/debit card thefts. I work with RFID in an R&D lab (but have no particular commercial interest in them). The RFID in a credit card isn't "beaming its lil signal out there"...it has no battery. They are only activated when they come within very close range of a reader, which emits an electromagnetic signal that powers them.

A long-range RFID reader would be quite tricky for anyone but a very skilled professional to build at this point. On the other hand any geeky 14 year old with a soldering iron can build a card mag stripe scanner from instructions and parts off the Internet. Or you can buy them on the street for $25 or so. Or a dealer in stolen credit card numbers will give you one for free if you work in a restaurant or gas station and are willing to do second swipes.

There are a lot of questions about RFID going forward (in higher-value documents such as passports, for example) but for now, it's extremely unlikely it's the problem here. There are lots easier way to steal your data. And there's only one sure solution: If you don't want your credit card info swiped, don't use credit cards.

I disagree with your assessment entirely.
I walk a fine line here with telling people how to do it, but suffice it to say, it can and has been done.

And if you think I am off my rocker, the foremost data security expert has been talking about it since November of 2006. A year a a half ago.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/skimming_rfid_c.html
"And because the cards can be read even through a wallet or an item of clothing, the security of the information, the researchers say, is startlingly weak."

maybe I need to make my own R&D lab....

jayce · February 2008

bina, once your credit/debit card number is stolen, it can be obtained by people through forums very similar to this one. so regardless of the vector by which it is obtained, once its out, its out. and it will be used by a lot of people in a lot of different places. this makes the actual theft harder to discover because, as you are discovering, there are a lot of different venues now to chase down. its also dissemenated that way because most people realize and shut off the number fairly quickly, so by sharing the numbers thieves are often able to make more money through reciprocal deals. within seconds of your data being posted on one of these discussions, you can better believe its getting hit from all kinds of places. your best bet is to terminate the number immediately. but that is why it winds up with sales coming from all over the place.

littleredmenace · February 2008

I don't live in Park Slope, but at the end of January I had to deal with debit card fraud. There were four charges on my Commerce card on the same day at gas stations, to the total tune of $250. When I talked to Visa Fraud Protection Services, I found out that those stations were in Miami. I also found out that not only did they get my card number, they actually made a card. The woman I talked to said that they can tell if a card has been swiped.

It REALLY sucks when it happens on a debit card and one lives paycheck to paycheck. It nearly wiped out my account. Luckily Commerce hooked me up with a provisional credit immediately. They rule like that.

I also have an account at Citibank and I did receive a new card.

bina · February 2008

Subject: credit card theft

jayce, tx for the advice. yes, we did discard the cards and got new ones rightaway and are always vigilant about charges posted on all our a/c
also luckily the banks etc know are habit and buying patterns and alert us of unusual activity- we also advice them in case we r about to make a major purchase or travel etc b4 hand

littleredmenace · February 2008

Yeah, I did that when I went to Portugal in October. It occurred to me that they might just cut off my cards if all of a sudden transactions from Lisbon were showing up.

raw · February 2008

Carmen wrote: ^I have citibank and did not receive a new card, just as an fyi...

Same here.

photoplayer · March 2008

Subject: It happened to me today!

I know this is an oldish thread but it's the best place I found to post. Chase just called and told me about activity on my account. 9 times at different gas stations my "card" was used in Florida. I am in physical possession of my card so whoever is doing this made a clone/duplicate of my card.

Is this still happening to anyone? I told the fraud dept guy at chase to check out the info on gowanus lounge and he was surprised. He called me back and said they were unaware that it was contained to such a small area, Park Slope and nearby hoods.

Would like to hear if this is still happening to people and what they're doing about it. I think I'll call the 78th precinct as recommended in Jan I see.

bina · March 2008

Subject: cc/bank card fraud

photoplayer: tx for updating on your problems- will checkout my statements as well to see if any unauthorised activity took place

jethro · March 2008

I had the same thing happen 3-4 weeks ago. Chase MC - used several times for transactions at gas stations in FL.

rapture · March 2008

Yes, Photoplayer -- it is still happening. I have had it happen a few weeks ago for the THIRD time in the last six months!! Mine is a Citibank MC. The fraud department said that one of the merchants I frequently use the card at is under investigation.

photoplayer · March 2008

Ugh. I'm totally going to be using cash for awhile while dining out/shopping. Thanks for the update and good luck. I'll post here if I find anything else out.

redmenace · March 2008

Subject: Re: It happened to me today!

My HSBC card was hijacked, as was that of my husband. There was a story on channel 4 news that there was a rash of HSBC card # thefts, and they replaced over 6000 cards in NYC.

My husband only uses his card at a branch, and usually only in Manhattan.

Gas stations again - this time in Canada. $2800

photoplayer wrote: I know this is an oldish thread but it's the best place I found to post. Chase just called and told me about activity on my account. 9 times at different gas stations my "card" was used in Florida. I am in physical possession of my card so whoever is doing this made a clone/duplicate of my card.

Is this still happening to anyone? I told the fraud dept guy at chase to check out the info on gowanus lounge and he was surprised. He called me back and said they were unaware that it was contained to such a small area, Park Slope and nearby hoods.

Would like to hear if this is still happening to people and what they're doing about it. I think I'll call the 78th precinct as recommended in Jan I see.

rapture · March 2008

There actually seems to be many ways this id theft/credit card/bank card fraud is being done. Besides stealing the credit card or bank card numbers and making a bogus card that is then swiped, some people are also saying that their acounts are being hijacked at the bank branches. A friend of mine had $2,000 removed from her bank account (and supposedly it happened at her branch -- police were still investigating last I spoke to her).

photoplayer · March 2008

Hijacked at their branch? How does that happen?
I can now see the activity on my statement online, maxing out the pumps each time ($100 each), 4 so far... Chase says another 5 are on the way. Fun times.

Rapture wrote: There actually seems to be many ways this id theft/credit card/bank card fraud is being done. Besides stealing the credit card or bank card numbers and making a bogus card that is then swiped, some people are also saying that their acounts are being hijacked at the bank branches. A friend of mine had $2,000 removed from her bank account (and supposedly it happened at her branch -- police were still investigating last I spoke to her).

Park Slope Credit Card/Bank Card Fraud!

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