Skimming is a serious vulnerability to the new driver's licenses required with the REAL ID Act mandated by the Department of Homeland Security.  This law was slipped through with the Tsunami Bill and made into law February 2005. 

By 2017, every U.S. Citizen will be required to have one of these driver's licenses or you will not be able to enter a federal building, including the SSN office, any courthouse, fly on an airplane or cross state lines!  Many states are already issuing driver's licenses with these tags because they get additional federal money.

Section 302 of the REAL ID Act mandates the following:

“The ground surveillance technologies utilized in the pilot program shall include the following:
(A) Video camera technology.
(B) Sensor technology.
(C) Motion detection technology.”

Referred to also as transponders, RFID chips are activated by a radio wave transmitted by a reader which triggers a program encoded into the chip. The distance of detection is determined by the strength of the reader.  The communication begins between the reader and the chip. The information transmitted is unique to each chip and can be cloned rather easily.  Most companies do not use encryption because it magnifies the cost of a chip from a few pennies to a few dollars, and in the corporate world, the bottom line wins. 

Standard information included in the broadcast can be your name, account number(s), PIN codes, credit limits, even your home address can be found by the professional thief. The information here is the top-secret sort, the type the diligent person shreds when it comes in the mail. In the hands of the wrong person, it is devastating, costly and can wreak havoc on your peaceful world.

A “skimmer”, uses readily available equipment and programs, gets their antenna within range of your RFID info and within seconds, they can steal your data. Quicker than you can read this sentence, your data could be on its way to purchasing a laptop for somebody who just walked past you. You never lose your card. It never came out of your wallet. Because you still have your card, all still seems right with the world.

RFID lives in many things and can be in anything you possess including jeans and tennis shoes. Passport cards, credit and debit cards, contact less smart cards, door security cards and store loyalty cards carry RF chips. Employee badges have RFID monitoring so employers can monitor your whereabouts, and the government can monitor you at all other times. (Unless, you have an Armadillo Dollar in your wallet covering your cards.)

Protect your identity, shield your money and guard your family.