With hundreds of millions of charges being done daily through ATM and credit cards, one would hazard to guess that the technology securing them would be incredibly sophisticated. You would be wrong. Just focus on the black stripe.
In many ways, your financial world has turned to black. Huh? I am referring to the black stripe, known as the magstripe, on the back of your plastic. That black stripe is a magnetized gathering of your pertinent information.
The problem with the magstripe technology is it has been around forever. More pertinent, it was around long before the notion of identity theft became such a big deal and long before rewriters and such became available to the general public.
So, how do identity thieves go about manipulating the magstripes to use stolen personal information? With the advances in technology over the years, it is incredibly easy. Much like using a CD Rewriter, they simply use a magstripe re-writer.
This is one bit of technology that does exactly what it says. You use software to create a profile. You then run a charge card through the device by swiping it a couple times. Walla! You have a card loaded with whatever identity you want.
If the process seems familiar, it is. You have used it at least once and probably a couple of times in your life. When you opened a bank account, you were given an ATM card. To activate it, you used a version of the re-writer.
So, how do thieves use this information? Well, they don't go out and get credit card blanks. Instead, they buy monetary gift cards from banks. They then put your information on the card and jack up the available balance on the gift card.
Once the card in question is loaded, it is time to do some serious shopping. The only way to get caught is if a clerk gets suspicous or the person whose identity is stolen puts a stop on their credit. This doesn't tend to happen for at least 30 days.
If it seem as though something should be done about this, it is very difficult. Every credit card would have to be changed as well as every machine that reads them in stores and so on. More than likely, the card will probaby be simply phased out.
