Inside the PayPass: Credit card case mods

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Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories crack open a RFID PayPass and put it in a Hello Kitty dispenser (of course)... -

The PayPass is an RFID version of the MasterCard credit card. It is often available as a keychain "fob," like the one shown above. This particular one is from Citibank and is-- as far as I can tell-- a free optional addition to any Citibank Mastercard account. These have been in the wild for about a year now, and seem pretty handy. The obvious downside is that the RFID readers are far from ubiquitous. Still, things are improving and there are now quite literally dozens of places where you can use them.

From a hardware perspective it's easy to see that this fob consists of the RFID element itself encased in a big block of plastic. And of course, plastic can be removed.

Credit card case mods - Link.

If I were Citi bank I would do a Credit card case mod contest... I'll email them now and see what they say :)


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Comments

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Posted by: shbazjinkens on August 29, 2007 at 5:02 PM

It just occurred to me that a flip up enclosed casing like that could be used as a pretty effective Faraday cage to keep the card from being read inappropriately. Of course, it would have to be metalized first.

I don't care myself because I'm never going to use those insecure things.


Posted by: firimari on August 30, 2007 at 5:36 AM

This is why the hardware store sells copper screen door mesh: to line your duct-tape wallet in.


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