Can This Gadget Suck Money Out of Your Wallet? - Comments Page 2

Yikes ! ! !

How in the world could anyone think this is ok?!

Are there no depths to which those PRICKS will not sink. We the people are under assualt from this G..D... thing we call a government.

This is a bit misleading. Prepaid cards don't have "personal information" on them. And this isn't RFID sniffing, either: it requires swiping the card through the ERAD reader.

Having said that, there certainly is room for abuse here: "Answer all my questions or I'll freeze your card and you won't be able to buy groceries". Civil forfeiture in general is pretty sketchy.

As a retired Australian Federal police officer I just want to add my own remarks as I actually get a bit tired and frustrated with some of these comments. I have no doubt Bob's facts are correct. Opinions, to which we are all entitled, are different. Here in Australia in my time, it was a continual battle with new and emerging technology, to overcome the criminal elements rush to pick it up and to then utilise to avoid, or hide from, the law. We struggled with our arms tied behind our backs by LAWS, things that do not apply to criminals, until they get caught.
I do not know whether these 'ERAD' devices are covered by the law but if not, then they should be. Look to your politicians for this, not the coppers.
And of course, there are always going to be 'bent' coppers, but, for a group of public servants, paid to do a job that continually requires most of them to respond to matters, all day and every day, that puts them in situations that could threaten their well being or even their lives, well instead of hitting on them continually, how about some respect and acknowledgement of the GOOD things that most of them do.

This issue could be small potatoes after next Tuesday when a Putin loving buffoon is elected to lead the USA and we here in Canada are faced with refugees streaming across the border. From the perspective up here it appears that sanity is an affliction suffered by a small minority down there and the world may end up looking for salvation in Elon Musk.

Unless you are strip searched, which requires probable cause, there is no legal reason for them to ask to see your credit/debit or gift cards. And they won't be able to detect them if you keep them in an aluminum case wallet; separate from the wallet you keep your driver's license and proof of insurance in. This also keeps a person with the right equipment from reading your card number when you're close to them, such as when you're inline to pay for purchases in stores. My credit card company sent me a text asking me if I bought an items worth well over $1,000; when I said I did not, they advised they would immediately close that card and send me a new card with a different number. That's when I bought my aluminum wallet case. Cheap insurance for the price of a burger.

Go figure in OK. They still have toll roads managed by corporations that claim they have not been paid for in all the years they've been in operation. I guess they think that since there isn't too much there for tourism, they have to find new and innovative ways to extract money from travelers. I really hate that the state lay right in the middle of where I have to travel often. Oh, and every time I enter the state I smell a skunk almost immediately, I guess it's the welcoming party.

If you think this is bad, read the book titled "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces" by Radley Balko.

Amazon link: https://amzn.com/1610394577 -- or check your local library.

It covers civil forfeiture in depth, as well as other outrages, like: 2:00am no-knock warrants served at the wrong address, resulting in deaths of innocent people; massive over-use of SWAT teams for routine police activities; and a federal program that transfers surplus military hardware and weapons to police agencies (because every small-town PD *needs* an APC with mounted .50-cal machine gun!).

Charles, don't rag on the whole state just because you have to pay for the road your are using. I have come to embrace toll roads since the people using them are paying for them, with a pike pass it is easy going. It really is a beautiful state with 8 eco-systems, no state has more. Slow down from the posted limit of 75, on the turnpike, maybe take some other roads. Is it perfect? No but regardless of what others may think, I haven't been to a perfect state yet.

In Arizona, we are being required to purchase a "new" $25 RFID Driver's License in order to board a plane. Soon, it will be required to cross State Lines in your own vehicle! To obtain the new license, you must provide the same info as you do for an International Passport. I remember that a couple years ago I was laughed at as a conspiracy theorist for saying that it won't be long before a passport will be required for American Citizens to travel between States, but that's another problem. The worst for all of U.S. right now is that ANYONE with an ERAD (or just a cheap RFID) Reader can stand near someone with the new license and know enough about you to OWN you. At least it's not a theory anymore!