The question of whether one needs an RFID wallet has been popping up a lot lately. Even NPR spent several days with our owner, Walt Augustinowicz, understanding the technology so they could broadcast a news story about it. They even dubbed Walt, "the godfather of RFID-blocking accessories" in their news story.
The credit card industry has spent a lot of time trying to cloud the waters about whether their new RFID contactless cards are putting consumers at risk of payment fraud. You will hear them say such things as - There are many other ways to get your card stolen, we have no data showing this is a problem, it is unlikely for this to happen. But at the end of the day you never hear an outright denial from them that electronic pickpocketing can't be done.
This is because all the real-world demonstrations show that it in fact can be done and quite easily. Walt proved that to the world in his 100's of news appearances worldwide. He stunned onlookers in Times Square with Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn as he scanned people’s wallets and then showed them their own credit card numbers to their disbelief, all recorded on camera. Walt also scanned an Inside Edition producer's wallet and proceeded to have the anchor place an order for a sweater from LL Bean which to the anchor's surprised arrived a few days later in the mail.
This kind of demonstration has been done by Walt with local news stations across the country that wanted to know if the same risk was in their neck of the woods. At the end of the day the answer was a resounding Yes. The risk is real and is still a threat with the new "chipped" EMV cards that are being issued in 2019. In fact the devices available to thieves have become more powerful with longer read ranges, while shrinking in size to make it even easier for electronic pickpocketing to occur.
All that being said, whether you need an RFID wallet in itself isn’t really a question you need to ask. Would you ask yourself whether you really need a car with air conditioning if the price of a car without air conditioning was the same? Identity Stronghold has spent over a decade providing consumers with the best RFID blocking wallets at the same price as a non-RFID wallet. From the start Walt built our company on the foundation that people shouldn’t have to make a financial decision about whether they should protect themselves or not. RFID protection is simply built in for the same price.
Now the only question you really need to answer is whether you are buying an RFID Wallet from a company you can trust. Because, after all, just labeling a wallet RFID protected doesn’t mean it is. Many companies out there are selling “RFID Wallets” with token shielding in the outer shell but do not incorporate a full shielding system into their wallets like ID Stronghold does. Many are companies with no phone number, and no way to verify whether they even understand RFID and how to actually defend against RFID crimes. With ID Stronghold you get the best. Verify for yourself. Just google “Walt Augustinowicz rfid” and you can watch many of the news stories showing why the answer is, “Yes”, you do need an RFID wallet.
