The Dangers of Identity Theft While Travelling

9 years ago 0 comments

In the past when people spoke about “identity theft”, they usually meant impersonating or pretending to be another person in physical life. Nowadays the term “identity theft” is also commonly used to refer to cases when credit card details are stolen. The same term is also used to refer to cases when one steals identity card details, passport details or be it any other membership card details for personal gain.

Information in RFID Credit Cards and Passports Can be stolen by an RFID Reader

Many people are unaware that the information stored on RFID credit cards and biometric passports can be stolen from a distance, without actually having to get hold of a person’s credit card or passport. RFID cards and passports contain an RFID microchip or RFID tag that emits the information stored in the card in the form of radio transmission. The thing is that this radio transmission can be read from a distance of up to 10 feet (3 metres away) by means of an RFID reader.

Most RFID readers are relatively small and cheap and some smartphones also include one in the form of an NFC chip. As a matter of fact, some identity thefts are simply carried out by means of a smartphone and a free app.

RFID enabled credit cards include but are not limited to Visa PayWave, MasterCard PayPass, American Express ExpressPay and Discover Zip. On the other hand, all biometric passports have an RFID tag. All passports that are now issued in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and most other countries are biometric passports.

Some Apparent Experts are Not Well Informed

According to some supposedly experts, it is not possible to retrieve data from a biometric passport when the passport is closed. However other experts suggest that this is not really the case. According to the article “UK Biometric Passports not Secure”, a security expert managed to obtain data from a biometric passport that was closed and sealed in an envelope.

While some believe that having ID card or passport details stolen is not such a big issue, the same cannot be said in the case of the theft of credit card details. The information stored in credit cards is encrypted in order to make it safe, however those that steal information from RFID enabled cards usually know what to do in order to decode this information. Credit card details theft is usually a bigger issue if one is travelling as the victim may end up not being able to pay any restaurant or hotel bills.

When asked to clarify on this issue, spokespersons from credit card companies stated that although they appreciate the possibility of having one’s RFID credit card details stolen, they do not believe that there is any real cause of concern for their clients. For more information please refer to the article “Digital pickpockets using smartphones to steal credit cards”. However I have little or no faith in what such spokespersons say, especially if they have little or no security background.

Avoiding Identity Theft

So what can one do in order to avoid having his or her credit card details stolen? The most obvious thing is to avoid using RFID enabled credit cards altogether, especially if one is travelling. In fact most of today’s credit cards are of the type “chip and pin”; which requires the user to insert the credit card in a card reader and then input a unique pin number. While the information on a chip and pin card can still be stolen, one actually needs to get hold of the card and insert it in a special reader in order to read the information inside the card.

Checking the bank statements on a regular basis can also help in identifying strange transactions, which might be a result of the theft of credit card details. While this is not a way of preventing identity theft, the sooner a case of identity theft is identified the better. Another way of protecting RFID cards is to use a special type of envelope, but more about this will be covered in another article.

The Disadvantages of Buying from eBay

9 years ago 0 comments

On eBay one can find many China manufactured items at incredibly cheap prices. These items include, amongst other, travel accessories, clothes, shoes, tents, GPS receivers and many other items. Also impressive is the fact that many items are sold at zero shipping cost.

Having said this, while I am a regular eBay buyer, I have to admit that buying from eBay is not without disadvantages. For a start, it is sometimes not easy to determine if you are buying something that does not work as advertised or that will break down after a short period of time.

The eBay user comments rarely help, as users are only allowed to write one comment, usually as soon as they receive the item that has been ordered. There is also a limited time period, usually two months, after which it is not possible to rate the seller and write a comment. In any case it is not possible to change a review and comment after it is posted.

Most users pass negative comments only if they did not receive the item or if the item they received is not the one they ordered. For this reason it comes to no surprise why most eBay sellers have positive user ratings of 98% or more. After all, the eBay rating system is only for sellers and buyers so it is only fair that a seller receives a positive rating for sending the item order. Theoretically speaking, if one buys a junk item, it is not the fault of the seller. In any case, if the item breaks down in the meantime, it is not possible for the user to change his or her comment, as already mentioned previously.

Having said this, I do not mind taking such risks, so I will probably continue buying from eBay for years to come, especially where it comes to buying cheap items. After all, I have bought dozens of cheap items from eBay and it was only rarely that I ended up disappointed with my purchase. After all, when a cheap item eventually breaks I wouldn’t bother that much knowing that I had bought the item for just a couple of bucks.

Having said this, when buying more expensive items, I sometimes avoid forking out the money for unbranded items or items that are made by some Chinese brand that I have never heard of. Still if I eventually decide to buy an unbranded item, I usually prefer to buy from Amazon. Amazon sells millions of items, many of which are sold by third parties, and it comes to no wonder why it boasts in being the world’s largest Internet company.

The advantage of buying from Amazon is that items sold on Amazon usually come accompanied with user reviews for the items being sold. If I see a lot of negative reviews for some particular item or if I see too many few reviews, if at all, I usually skip the item and go for another one that has a lot of positive user reviews. Amazon also makes it easier to return items, so in that case, I know that I am covered. Having said this, I know that on Amazon it is not easy to find the same cheap items as those sold on eBay, but that is the price to pay for a greater piece of mind.

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