Electronic Pickpocketing

 

Thieves now have the capabilities to steal your credit card information without laying a hand on your wallet.

It's new technology being used in credit and debit cards, and it's already leaving nearly 140 million people at-risk for electronic pickpocketing.

It all centers around radio frequency identification technology, or RFID.

You'll find it in everything from your passports to credit and debit cards.

It's supposed to make paying for things faster and easier.

You just wave the card, and you've paid.

But now some worry it's also making life easier for crooks trying to rip you off.

In a crowd, Walt Augustinowicz blends right in.

And that's the problem.

"If I'm walking through a crowd, I get near people's back pocket and their wallet, I just need to be this close to it and there's my credit card and expiration date on the screen," says Augustinowicz demonstrating how easily cards containing RFID can be hacked.

Armed with a credit card reader he bought for less than $100 on-line and a netbook computer, WREG On Your Side Investigators put Augustinowicz to the test.

For about an hour he patrolled Beale Street, looking for RFID chips to read, and credit card information to steal.

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