Swipe and Go Credit Cards: Modern Convenience or another Identity Theft Risk?
What You Should Know About Swipe and Go Credit Cards
The idea behind the new swipe and go credit cards seems like a good one on the surface. After all, with the hectic schedules most people keep nowadays, every second counts and if a swipe and go credit card can save you time, why not use one? However, when you look a little deeper, you may soon realize that swipe and go credit cards may not be worth the convenience if they increase your chances of identity theft.
What Are Swipe and Go Credit Cards?
Swipe and Go credit cards are little credit cards or devices that you put on your key ring. When you make a purchase at a store accepting the card, all you have to do is swipe the card in front of a card reader and you’re done – off you go – no signature, no I.D., no hassle. And that’s exactly what makes these credit cards so valuable to identity theft criminals and so dangerous to us.
No One’s Checking
If an identity theft criminal gets a hold of one of your swipe and go credit cards, no one is going to catch the fact that his signature is different than yours because no one is going to be checking. In the amount of time it takes for you to realize your credit card has been stolen, the criminal could have already made hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in purchases. And to make matters worse, some of these swipe and go credit card devices can have the “core” removed while leaving the shell and it may take you days to realize anything’s missing.
Be Careful
If you do have swipe and go credit cards, make sure you are very careful about where you put them. Most people carry them on their key rings, and if you’re one of those people make sure you never leave your keys sitting out in the open and always have a separate key ring to give to valets when you have your car parked. By taking these measures, your swipe and go credit cards will be less likely to cause you serious identity theft headaches.
Comments
until today i have never heard of swipe/go credit cards. no company has offered me one so where would i get one if i wanted one?
Posted by: SID NORRIS | July 12, 2006 12:31 PM
If you use "Swipe & Go" for small purchases there should be no real danger.
These are usually designed for fast food, convenience stores, etc.
Posted by: Bill Morgenstein | July 12, 2006 3:19 PM
If these "Swipe and Go" credit cards are synonymous with the new RFID cards, then there is an additional risk to consider - that of hackers cloning your card onto another card of their own. They do this by "innocently" bumping into you while outfitted with a hidden reader to read the contents of your card. Note that this is still a very rare practice, but may get more prominent as RFID cards (not just credit card kinds) of all kinds become more commonplace.
Posted by: JTS | July 12, 2006 10:09 PM
I love all of your information. Not all of it is relative to me, but some one I know can use it. Thank you.
Posted by: Florence Stemper | July 13, 2006 4:31 PM
thank you for all this information.
Posted by: stroke victim | July 18, 2006 12:41 PM