2-for-Tuesday: Bogui Wallets with or without RFID Cards
- You get two stylish minimalist wallets that will make you think, “Damn, this thing is slick!”
- After at least two weeks of thinking, “Damn, is that my phone or my wallet?”
- Comes with RFID protective cards… or not! Do you worry about RFID theft? Or do you think it’s overblown? Vote with your dollars!
- Model: BG201r-[the color]. To clarify [the color] is not part of it. Well, the color is part of it, but instead it would just be the color rather than [the color]. Oh god, I’m in a vague confusing explanation loop, aren’t I?! I’LL NEVER GET OUT! NOOOOO!!!
RFID: Required? Friend, I Dunno!
Usually, we only do this when it’s something health-related. But the rivers of snake oil flow through all industries, so today we bring you a financially-minded edition of…
THE SKEPTIC’S CHOICE
The product in question? These Bogui Wallets which we are selling with or without RFID-protective cards. So, here goes:
The Claim
Using these cards, you can protect yourself from identity theft. And by “identity theft” we mean in the steal-your-credit-card-info sense, not in the Spiderman-pointing-at-Spiderman sense (RIP Stan!).
The Skepticism
What’s nice about the edition of The Skeptic’s Choice is that we can start with what we rarely have: facts. So, let’s run down a few:
First, RFID stands for “radio frequency identification,” but what is it, exactly? According to RIFD Journal, it’s “a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects.” So, if you have an RFID-enabled credit card, it stores your info and can transmit it via a RFID reader.
Which, of course, is where the potential for danger comes in.
This is the second fact: identity theft from an RFID-enabled credit card is possible. In the opening of a 2006 WIRED article titled, “The RFID Hacking Underground,” a “punk with a laptop” uses a simple RFID reader on a key card to break into the office of–wait for it–an internet security company. And in this 2008 video from BoingBoing TV, two people who look like extras from The Matrix, discuss how cheap and easy it is to steal info from RFID-enabled credit cards.
So, it would seem safe to say: you probably need that RFID card for protection. But not everyone agrees.
Over at Wirecutter, our usual first stop when it comes to product research, Tim Barribeau draws the conclusion that: a) yes, it’s real and possible; and b) the demos of RFID theft look cool on video; but c) most credit cards don’t have RFID chips in them; and finally, d) “you’re far more likely to be affected by a card skimmer at an ATM, or a breach of a major retailer like Target or Sony” than get taken for a ride by the aforementioned punk with a laptop.
In a Slate article Barribeau points to, “The Skimming Scam,” Will Oremus makes another very interesting point:
While early versions of RFID payment systems may have transmitted sensitive data like the card number unencrypted, major credit card companies insist that’s no longer the case. Their RFID chips now send a one-time code for each transaction, so at best, a determined thief might be able to make a single purchase by recording and replicating the signal he picks up from a given card. Even if that were to happen, the cardholder would not be liable for the fraudulent purchase under most credit card companies’ policies. From the thief’s perspective, it’s a lot of work for relatively little gain.
Computer security expert Roger Grimes shares this opinion. He explains the lopsided risk-to-reward ratio to Lauren Silverman of NPR’s All Things Considered:
“An RFID hacker has to make sure that there’s a lot of people walking by with RFID-enabled credit cards, [and] there’s good chance they’ll be caught on closed circuit cameras nearby, versus, I can for a lot less risk, go online on the Internet and buy thousands” of credit cards, their information and security codes “for literally a couple of a bucks a piece,” Grimes says.
The Conclusion
It’s definitely not super heartening that, in the end, the reason you don’t need to worry about RFID theft is that most thieves are looking for more lucrative ways to rob you of your money and information, but that seems to be the consensus opinion. Still, to repeat it for the third time, RFID theft is possible and as Tim Barribeau points out: “if you find a wallet you like that has [RFID protection], it doesn’t make it a worse wallet.”
So, instead of looking at it as “should” or “should not”, let’s break it down like this:
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If you’re worried, get the RFID cards. After all, it’s two dollars more, which is a buck per wallet.
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If you’re only a little worried, get one RFID card. Now you can go back and forth for just one dollar, depending on how afraid you are.
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If you’re not worried, don’t get the RFID cards. You just saved yourself two bucks!
How does that sound?
