by Dianne Ojar-Ali,

author of Mrs. Fraud and You.

There was a time when we use to worry about pickpocketing. We would tuck away our wallets and pray that when we reach for them, they were still in our pockets or purses. That still is and will always be a common trade of identity theft, however with technology we really do not have to worry too much about people stealing our wallets as much as we have to now start worrying about Mrs. Fraud stealing our information and she could be several centimeters away using a scanner and a laptop.

The awareness is growing day by day in North America. Now I do not want to scare you but I do want you to be in a defensive mode, meaning that be aware of your surroundings and everyone around you, when out shopping. Mrs. Fraud or one of her friends could be walking around causally with a scanner, one around the size of an iPad that has a wireless connection to a laptop somewhere close by and they are reading your credit card and banking information and all they are doing is just waving it up and down walking in stride. That can be scary. This is only, however, if your card has the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip on your card. If it does, it will have this ))) symbol. Remember when you used to fill gas at the local gas station and they will give you an Easy Pass points card – it was called “Tap and Go.” Well this is the same concept.

There is a company in the USA that is bringing awareness to this new security feature and I can assure you that almost everyone I speak to is not aware of it. In the States they still have the option to not activate it; however I am not sure at what point in time they will make it mandatory. Simply, go to www.idstronghold.com and check out the videos and products that are available in Canada that you can protect your cards, passports, badges even cell phones. There are alloy sleeves that you simply store your card in and it blocks the radio frequency. You can use aluminum foil as well however I can just picture you taking it out of your wallet and someone may think that it was your lunch or snack.

Several months ago, I received from my credit card company some renewal cards in the mail and I thought to myself why I got these cards. Now, because I worked for the bank, I knew that when they introduce a new product they will test it out with a group and then they will launch it to everyone. So I contacted my girlfriend and she said there was a pilot project and the bank sent it out, however if you do not want to have that feature we will waive it. So I said no problem. Now I am not one to destroy anything so quickly (lesson to learn here), so I tucked it away in a draw and then I was told several months after that it was mandatory that I had no choice the feature on the card was there to stay. Now my card has a magnetic strip, a micro chip to be used with a pin code and now this tap and go feature that could be easily stolen. Now you tell me what is next?

Contact Dianne at mrsfraudandyou@yahoo to attend a FREE workshop.

If you have questions or suggestions regarding Mrs. Fraud please contact The Caribbean Camera or Dianne Ojar-Ali.