Beware of Electronic Pick Pocketing this Holiday Season

The holiday season is upon us. The streets are full of snow, houses are decorated with bright colourful lights and Santa Claus is making appearances at malls throughout North America to see what children want for Christmas. Now that we are in the final few weeks before Christmas those of us who left the holiday shopping to the last minute are dashing off to the malls to purchase gifts for friends and family. This time of year stores and malls are packed full of people and unfortunately this type of environment can be a prime target for criminal activity. In the past, the main security concern in big crowds was pick pocketing, if you let your guard down for even a second you could lose your purse, cell phone or wallet. However, these days a new criminal phenomenon is emerging called electronic pick pocketing, where a criminal can steal your credit card number without even touching you.
Electronic pick pocketing relies on radio frequency identification technology or RFID. This is the technology present in credit or debit cards that allows you to make a purchase with a simple swipe over a scanner placed at the cashier of many stores throughout North America. While this technology allows for a great deal of convenience while making your holiday purchases it could also leave you open to electron pick pocketing. Criminals can purchase the RFID scanners that stores use online for as little as $100. Once they have the scanner they can conceal it in a computer case or bag and attach it wirelessly to a small notebook computer. They can then walk through a crowd scanning people’s purse or pockets with the concealed scanner and in seconds transfer individuals credit card numbers, expiry dates and even names to the nearby notebook computer. Over the course of an hour a criminal could get hundreds of credit card numbers. Once the numbers are in the computer they can easily be sent around the world and used to make purchases in your name.