Disable paypass?

[tigersaw]

My credit card has just been replaced with a barclaycard, (without my consultation). Fair do's, all the benefits remain except yet another new number. However, it has a RFID chip hidden inside it, allowing me (or anyone else for that matter) to make purchases without a pin or signature. As someone who has sufferered ID theft in the past, I'm totally not happy with this feature. Having just spent quite a while being passed around the whole of india and finally to Gateshead, it seems everyone in the industry thinks its the best thing since sliced bread and I'm barmy not to want such an 'innovation'. Barclaycard will be calling me monday to discuss my options, (erm my options are to tell barclaycard to f*** off as far as I am concerned and get a different card), but in the transition period where I need to carry this 'personal tagging system readable from 40 feet away', does anyone know how to disable the RFID?
Youtube is full of demos on disabling it with a microwave cooker, wacking with a punch etc, but the cards they use dont also carry chip and pin, which I don't want to harm.

[northwind]

I'm not sure if there's any way to remove it... It's integrated into our pilot card chips. You could go elsewhere but I think you'll find it's going to come to most cards sooner or later, and probably not much later- I reckon Amex will be last though, they always are, if that's any use. Fraud wise your main protection for visas isn't prevention, it's compensation, so the financial risk is identical mind.

[tigersaw]

I've learnt its easy to prevent casual reading of the RFID whilst its in your wallet, (for shops tracking your shopping habits, remote cloning etc), just by lining it with a sliver of tin foil.
Going to xray the card next week at work, see what shows up

[northwind]

Tin foil hat But yeah, barrier protection will work if you're worried about being read at a distance. So far it doesn't look like you need to worry about remote cloning mind, but we'll see if that remains true- to be honest the card criminals are better than the card designers.

Right, first, it depends on the quality of chips being used, and I don't work in the banking industry. So I'll work to what I know, and have possession of.

Originally Posted by tigersaw

I've learnt its easy to prevent casual reading of the RFID whilst its in your wallet, (for shops tracking your shopping habits, remote cloning etc), just by lining it with a sliver of tin foil.

+1. Easy method to prevent long range RFID sweeps. Generally this will only prevent the better scanners until they're within about 10-15ft.

The following information is meant as advice only. If you choose to follow it, the consequences are on you! Note that if the chip is placed in something that you don't own, and you damage the chip, you are liable to prosecution for criminal damage!

Now, if you want to completely kill the RFID chip, the simplest way is to microwave it on full, in a 750W or higher microwave, for 5 seconds. Don't do it any longer, or you'll risk melting the plastic and/or exploding your microwave.

A safer option, is to get a sharp compass, and pierce the pin at several points, ensuring that electrons can't flow around it.

A more covert option is to chop the antenna down, which means the chip won't be able to receive current, therefore won't be readable, but isn't fool proof (just cuts the range drastically).

The most covert option, and one that leaves plausible deniability is to give it a couple of hits with a decent hammer. This method does the same as the compass option really, breaking the contacts in the chip. But of course, if you're not used to doing this, how do you know you've succeeded?

FYI, combine a top of the range chip with a top of the range scanner, and you wouldn't have any problem reading them from 150ft away. But I seriously doubt that the finance industry is going to be shipping those chips on cards!

[tigersaw]

x-rayed it this morning, couple of sus looking dots on the picture, theres something in there but picture not good enough to enable a precision drilling exercise!