From picturephoning.com I learned of an article by a sheriff in Arkansas who warns that criminals are using camera phones to take photos of credit cards. When first reading the article you might think, "hey, this is serious," but if you give the matter some thought, it's probably less serious -- at least with today's camera phones in the United States.
Sergeant Tim Phillips in the Baxter Bulletin writes that criminals could take a photo of your credit card while your standing in line. He says this sort of activity has increased identity theft by as much as 20 percent. Who determined this figure?
Baxter's tips
Baxter lists six ways to reduce the threat of your credit card being photographed:
"* Do not remove your credit card from your wallet or purse until you are immediately ready to use it.
"* Avoid handing your credit card face up to the cashier. Hand it face down, covering your signature on the back with the palm of your hand or thumb.
"* Do not sign your receipt where others can easily read it.
"* If someone is standing a little too close to you while using a cell phone, it is better to politely ask him or her to kindly allow more space than to become a victim of identity theft.
"* Always be aware of your surroundings and the people around you. This is especially true when traveling out of town.
"* Casinos, professional stadiums, concert halls and large amusement parks are a criminal's feeding grounds. Be careful here."
Is this really a problem?
Mike Masnick of Techdirt Wireless is skeptical about the extent of this problem and so am I. Mike points to the Window Manager Weblog where Director Mitch (Mitch Director?) used his Samsung SOH-A620 camera phone to take a photo of his credit card from about three feet away.
The result is a blur, where you can just about see that it is a credit card, let alone read the number.
Based upon the resolution/clarity of camera phones in the U.S., including the lack of an optical zoom, I suspect this threat is exaggerated. You wouldn't be able to read the credit cards numbers unless you took a close photo in good lighting conditions.
Actually, I did just that. I took some photos of one of my credit cards with my Hitachi G1000 Pocket PC camera phone. The photos were clear enought to read the numbers, but that was when I held the phone close to the card, without moving and the lighting was bright.
Technology doesn't stand still
However, that doesn't mean there won't be a more serious problem in the future. Two megapixel camera phones are available in Asia and three mexapixel handsets should be available in the area this year.
I don't know whether optical zooms will be available but photo editing programs could help improve the readability of credit card numbers.
So, I don't think it's something to worry about now, but something to think about in the future.
It seems to me those tips apply to protecting your credit card info in general. As the technology stands, I would be more worried about someone getting my CC number/ATM pin/etc. via simple shoulder surfing than with a blurry camera phone.
Posted by: mikepop | Wednesday, February 04, 2004 at 01:36 PM