Thieves With Scanners May Post a Danger to Travelers Using New RFID Technology

Although U.S. banks (with some small exceptions) have steadfastly refused to create chip-and-PIN credit cards of the sort that have become nearly universal in Europe, some have begun to create cards with an embedded computer chip (Radio Frequency Identification technology-- known as RFID chips) that enables the card to be used not by being swiped through a channel that reads their magnetic strips but simply passed within an inch or so of a scanning device. Although the user is sometimes told that they have been given such a card, occasionally the bank simply produces the new technology without informing its customers.

I'm told that security experts believe the new cards create especial dangers for travelers. Because, in crowded airport or railway station situations in which a thief can stand within a foot of your pants pocket or purse in which the card is kept, the thief can use an electronic-reading-device that captures the name and number on your card.

How to protect against that happening? You can wrap your credit card in tinfoil, or buy a special, lead-lined wallet in which to keep the credit cards (do a Google search for "RFID" to find offers for such wallets). But I'm turning to our readers for even better safeguards. Have any of you been given such a card? And have you also been told how to protect the information on it from electronic thieves?