Here are a few of the top stories on RFID, barcode data collection, and supply chain IoT over the past couple of weeks.
Report of New Longer Range RFID Reader for Stealing Credit Card Information
There is still much debate about whether there is a real threat of a thief using a portable RFID reader to seal the credit card number and related information from chip-enabled cards carried by unsuspecting consumers.
While “RFID blocking wallets” continue to be aggressively marketed on the internet, some have said the threat is made up, and that no one has actually been hacked in this fashion.
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| “We have considered scanning at our registers, but do not feel it is right for us at this time,” Hobby Lobby says on its website. |
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Regardless, one barrier to this style of thievery is that to get a UHF RFID chip read, the reader needs to be just a couple of inches from the tag – difficult and potentially awkward if the victim is carrying the card in a pants pocket or a purse.
Well, it appears the hacker community has invented an answer to that problem. Security researcher Fran Brown now has created something called the Tastic RFID Thief, which can stealthily snag the information off an RFID card at a longer range.
According the hackaday.com web site, the system uses an off-the-shelf high-powered reader, (such as the HID MaxiProx 5375), and makes it amazingly portable by embedding 12 AA batteries and a custom PCB using an Arduino Nano to interpret the reader’s output.
When the reader sees a nearby card, the information is parsed through the Nano and the data is both sent to an LCD screen and stored to a .txt file on a removable microSD card for later retrieval.
Does it work? Do people really invent such digital criminal tools? We have no idea, but maybe the RFID wallet isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Why Hobby Lobby doesn’t Use Barcodes
Those of you that have been to a Hobby Lobby craft store may have noticed that the chain does not use UPC bar code on its products.
Instead, checkout personnel manual type in product codes a rare exception from the retail norm in terms of barcode scanning at point of sales, and almost certainly the largest chain to not use bar code technology.
Just why is that?
A recent article on Nexstar News addressed this topic, noting that some have speculated that Hobby Lobby, owned by Evangelical Christians, fears barcodes are the “mark of the beast.”
The idea that barcodes are a “mark of the beast” stretches back to the 1970s.
It appears that such a fear is not at all the driver of the chain's no barcodes philosophy. Instead, as TikTok user @arenclelle commented, the company’s owner simply believes in the power of humans over computers, according to the Nextstar report.
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Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green wrote in his book, “More Than a Hobby,” that opting against barcodes and scanners at registers puts people first. He writes that he doesn’t want employees to think the company values computers over them, according to a summary of his book.
We’re not sure that analysis is so sound – use of barcodes would make the checkout work easier – but it appears that the situation is not going to change any time soon.
“We have considered scanning at our registers, but do not feel it is right for us at this time,” Hobby Lobby says on its website.
Latest Arrest for Barcode-based Theft
 We occasionally report on the often wild stories of thieves stealing from retailers using what you might call barcode fraud, which although it can take many forms almost always has the same basic activity in the end – scanning the bar code of a much less expensive item instead of the real item, and pocketing the difference.
The profit is often realized by returning the stolen item without a receipt, or selling the items over the Internet.
Another case with a bit of a twist was reported out of South Dakota late last week. Greatly simplifying, Dustin Lee Starzl, 39, and Emily Jean Raczynksi, 42, both of Watertown, South Dakota, are charged in Nobles County Fifth District Court with felony-level possession of burglary or theft tools.
They were charged after their car was pulled over for a minor violation. But then while placing Starzl under arrest for an active arrest warrant, a paper reportedly fell from Starzl's possession that contained a barcode. During booking, the officer found numerous plastic cards with barcodes stuck to them, and observed three retail receipts.
The barcode on the Worthington receipt matched one that fell from Starzl's pocket.
Based on the officer's prior experience in loss prevention, he suspected the barcodes were likely used for retail theft, allowing the user to scan the barcodes at self-checkouts for alternate prices.
So it appears the “theft tools” the couple is charged with possessing are the credit cards with barcode labels on them, which would be scanned surreptitiously at self-check as the more expensive item is placed in the bag.
Raczynksi, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was asked to exit the vehicle for a search, during which the officer located a Home Depot card with cutout bar codes taped to it, as well as multiple cut-out barcodes with double-sided tape on the backs of random plastic cards, including old gift cards, hotel room keys and bank cards, inside Raczynksi's wallet.
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