Criminal Use Of Camera Phones?
from the more-to-fear dept
More paranoia over the misuse of camera phones. Found over at picturephoning.com is this story describing how a criminal might take a photo of your credit card and signature while you're paying for something at a store. I'm just curious if this has actually happened to anyone. The article claims that camera phones have "increased identity theft crimes by as much as 20 percent," though they don't describe how they came up (or how they measure) such a finding. While I don't deny that it's possible, it certainly seems like (a) a fairly inefficient process for identity theft and (b) has an increasingly high likelihood of getting caught. I would bet that there are much bigger identity theft threats out there than the guy behind you in line at the grocery store. Update: Thanks to Director Mitch for agreeing to be a guinea pig on this one. He took out a credit card and his camera phone, took a picture of his credit card from three feet away and posted the image to his website. Go ahead and start buying stuff online.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Idiotic Claim
Even with larger resolution cameras down the pike, just memorizing 14 digits ain't that hard and just looking over your shoulder is easier (or having the teller steal it, or getting a copy of your receit, etc., etc., etc.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Idiotic Claim
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]