The world is going contactless

Huge rise in contactless credit card usage

Posted on June 5, 2015June 5, 2015 by admin

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON (TfL)

has revealed that it is seeing 1.2 million contactless transactions every day, a figure that it expects to grow following the arrival of Apple Pay and Android Pay in the UK.

What hasn’t been mentioned is the large number of incidents of so called “card clash” that results in double payment or over payment of travel charges. https://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/oyster/using-oyster/card-clash
Indications are that there have been tens if not hundreds of thousands of repayments made by TFL and that can only be where the customer has actually realised that this overpayment has occurred. So when MasterCard says that every terminal in Europe will accept contactless by 2020 http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/you-ll-be-able-to-use-contactless-payments-anywhere-from-2020-1295733 you can see we are heading rapidly to a cashless society. Our educated guess is that  anyone wanting to access your card details will have to use ever more sophisticated methods of getting at your data. And guess what all the latest Smart Phones including now the I-phone6 are equipped with NFC (Near field communication) and with a simple app you can extract bank card details. If you don’t believe it take a look at how many bank card readers are already available on Google play store https://play.google.com/store/search?q=nfc%20reader&c=apps this for both your contactless credit card, debit card and even your passport which; yes you guessed it has exactly the same kind of contactless chip embedded with all of your vital identity data.
Gizmo and VoyagerBlue work closely to bring you effective security for your contactless cards and passports allowing you to gain from the benefits whilst remaining confident you have added security. Visit www.gizmopromo.co.uk  now to see how little it costs for peace of mind.

Watch out for new products coming soon to keep up with the rapid development of contactless payments.

The rise and rise of contactless payment technology

The rise and rise of contactless payment technology.

 

Although seemingly slow to take off in the early days contactless payment technology now seems to be gathering momentum. Poland leads the way in Europe according to Visa’s Mark Austin; with just over 158M transactions using contactless cards in 2013. The UK saw 94M payments using contactless cards, up from 25M in 2012. 

TFL made the decision to go cashless on the London bus network from mid 2014 and already around 50% of what were previously cash transactions are now made using contactless. The expansion of the system across the Tube and DLR etc will be mirrored throughout the UK, for example in Manchester on the Metro and across Liverpool’s rail station network. 

The intended closure of London underground ticket offices (recent Tube strikes) demonstrates the impact on the use of cash and the costs to business of using cash when compared to the lower costs of automated contactless payments. However this convenience doesn’t come without issues. 

TFL has a major awareness campaign (posters, speaker announcements and internet adverts included) warning about what they describe as “card clash”. So what is card clash? Is it your credit debit cards arguing over payment? Of course not; what is really being described is the inability of the contactless payment reader to know which card you intend to use. Most of us carry several bank cards as well as travel cards such as Oyster. The payment terminal will take payment from the first card it properly connects with, whether or not that is the card you intend to use. Much advice is to separate your cards (carry two wallets?).  What happens if you enter the travel system for example London Underground and pass your wallet over the reader to log in your journey? The terminal reads card A, you then exit the system at the end of your journey and when you log out card B is read. Well you would be charged maximum fare on each card as you only have one read on each card and thus one journey on each card without a start and finish point. 

That’s where a simple and effective way of putting you back in control of your cards and when they get scanned comes in. VoyagerBlue contactless card shields are patented; fully tested and when in your wallet or purse next to your contactless credit or debit card will block any unwanted transactions. Watch video here. They will also prevent the possibility of fraudulent scanning of your personal data. The same technology will prevent unwanted scanning of your biometric passport. This may seem a little futuristic but already apps are available for modern smart phones that will read information on the chips used in bank cards, passports and more. FIND OUT MORE 

There were reports in the media earlier this year about unwanted transactions at major retailers in the UK due to proximity of readers to cards at till locations. 300,000 terminals were in place by the end of 2013 in major high street retailers and this will significantly increase through 2014/15 as the technology is more widely accepted. 

With all major issuers offering contactless cards and around 35 Million contactless cards already issued in the UK we will see continued rapid growth in this sector and its effect on the use of cash for lower value payments. The author also believes that the value of payments allowed per transaction will increase in the near future as the use of contactless cards becomes a major payment method. 

Food for thought, do you embrace the technology or do like the security (or not) of cash. Your data/personal information is being carried by the chips in your everyday items, watch out for the same technology in hotel room keys, season tickets and more and consider do you need to take steps to be in control of your “contactless”. Take a look at the video to see how you can keep control of your cards and data.  Watch Video

Never lose your wallet or phone again (and more).

Do you ever get halfway to work and realise your phone is on the breakfast table? 

There is now a solution. 

Have you ever dropped your wallet in a restaurant or left it at a till? 

There is now a solution.

The advent of Bluetooth low energy has allowed our VoyagerBlue development team to create  “App” based Gizmo’s that help to prevent the loss of your most valuable possessions.

For a number of years there have been high profile cases of laptops being lost with valuable data then left vulnerable, private and personal data such as Army medical records, recruitment details, and sensitive legal documents. In many cases they have just been forgotten in a café on a journey, left under a restaurant table only for an opportunist to make off.

Imagine if those responsible got an alert as they left the restaurant that they had left behind their valuable cargo  and they could turn right round and collect it?

Many of us have set of on a business journey and realised after some time that it has been a “quiet” morning. “Good grief my phone” Turn round and drive miles back and be late for your meeting or do without and miss that valuable sales enquiry. Well most folk have been the accidental victim of their own memory malfunction or scrambled busy mind.

There is now an answer with two invaluable devices that link to an App on your Smart phone, i-phone, i-pad, tablet or notebook.

The walletTag is a small slim “TAG” that slips inside your wallet, purse, laptop case etc, The SmartTag is a key Fob style device that fits on your keys, luggage, laptop case and even your kids. Using low energy Bluetooth connection with your smart device our proximity App then alerts you in one of two ways to the fact you have left your valuables behind.

As you walk out of the café where you have left your wallet with the Tag inside or your laptop case likewise your phone recognises that you have gone out of range of the Tags and sounds an alarm that notifies you immediately “Wallet” “laptop” or whatever valuable device you have just forgotten (you name each device as you please when you connect the App). You are still within just a few metres or yards of your valuable and can immediately return to pick it up before someone else does.

With the key fob device attached say to your car keys should you leave your home and leave your phone on the breakfast table an audible alarm will emit from the fob reminding you to pop back for your phone or tablet before you drive halfway to work. Both Tag and Fob (WalletTag and SmartTag) have two way find me systems, so if you cant find your phone in the house simply press the find me button and the phone will emit a pre-set alarm while you search it out.

Now on the Smart phone or tablet the App will do even more for you, If you have for some reason not heard the alert telling you that you have just left a café and left your wallet or laptop or even car keys then the App will record the location using your phones GPS system when you do realise you are missing your valuable, click on the App to discover where you left it.

Complicated? Not at all, take a look at the video demonstration and find out how you can prevent the loss of your valuables with WalletTag and SmartTag. Watch video here.

Please note the Map locater shows where you left your device, it is not a tracker but an aid to reminding you where you last had it.  

Contactless, RFID, NFC, what's it to you?

Contactless cards, RFID blocking, NFC enabled; what does the jargon mean and how does it affect your everyday life?

 

• Contactless cards, “contactless” has become the generic term in the banking industry for the type of payment system where you simply wave your credit or debit card close to a payment terminal which uses radio waves to link with your bank card to collect payment. The bank card has a microchip embedded that is activated by the radio waves and allows interrogation of the data contained in the chip. Designed to be speedy you do not need to enter a PIN number or signature. The maximum amount you can spend in one transaction varies around the world, for example Australia’s limit is $100 where the UK currently allows £20. Expect these limits to increase as the system becomes more widespread. You can identify a contactless credit card by the “Wi-Fi” symbol on the front of the card.

 

RFID blocking, RFID or Radio Frequency Identification is the two way communication between for example the payment terminal and the contactless card. There are two main frequencies for RFID. Bank cards and passports operate on the 13.56Mhz frequency. The terminal “identifies” the card the card carries identification data. RFID blocking is as it sounds blocking or preventing the radio signal from interacting with the contactless chip embedded in the bank card.

 

• NFC enabled; NFC is near field communication, allowing exchange of data between two or more devices in close proximity. Modern android phones are good examples of a device you may own that has NFC functionability in other words NFC enabled.

What can you do with your contactless card? Well the rapid payment technology means you can pay at the checkout in around 5 seconds, Whizz through the M6 toll just by waving your card close to the toll machine, travel on London buses and very soon the London underground along with many other regional transport systems without the need to fumble around for the right money. Simply wave and pay.

 

So we have bank cards and passports in growing numbers (over 30Million bank cards in UK alone) and a world full of devices that can communicate with the data chip contained. Just take a look in the App store and find apps that will read your bank details and your biometric or e-passport data. If you have an NFC enabled phone why not try it yourself.

 

The UK has seen many press articles, radio even TV reports regarding accidental scanning in stores and on transport systems so a problem has already been identified. Your card may be debited while still in your purse or wallet even though you wanted to use cash or a different bank card. here's an example London buses charge wrong card

 

We are constantly hearing reports about bank security being attacked at all levels including high level cybercrime. Think about the technical implications of having your data accessible to eavesdropping by radio scanners. Even someone stood alongside you with a mobile phone or laptop bag may be NFC enabled. We expect that attempts will be made to crack the security of this system as criminal gangs use more and more advanced and audacious methods to steal money and data. Sign up for alerts here ALERTS 

A £20 theft from a bank card may not trouble most people for a long time but the theft of a person’s identity is a far more serious issue, in some cases it takes years to resolve. A recent study showed for example that 1 in 14 Americans were victims of credit card identity fraud. 

Sign up to our e-mail alerts and we will keep you updated with the latest frauds and scams doing the rounds, and with developments in how to keep your identity and valuables safe. It’s free and you can expect an update around once per month with emergency alerts if we see a particularly dangerous fraud threat. 

Sign up now at www.gizmopromotions.co.uk

 

visit our facebook page or check us out on Google+.

 

Take a look at these shields to protect your contactless cards.

 

 

 

Contactless payments on the tube

It won’t be long now until contactless credit and debit cards will be accepted for payment on the London underground. You can read about the implementation of this payment method here; Standard.

Despite the claims of security the main reason for the use of this type of card has to be speed of movement of passengers, anyone who has travelled the tube will understand the need to move people quickly through the gates and what happens when gates get blocked so this really does look like an advantageous system. However we have already had reports of accidental scanning of cards at other outlets such as Marks and Spencer etc, read more here; Guardian.

 

If you present two different cards on entry and exit most likely you will be debited on both cards. If you don’t realise this and claim it back then you will lose out. How much time will it take you to go through such a claim? How easy will TFL make it?

 

 

What about the security of cards? Yes they are highly encrypted, but surely anything that is coded by humans can be decoded. Researchers at the university of Surrey have been conducting experiments into the scanning of contactless credit and debit cards, their research shows that this is a technical possibility and as our regular visitors to our site www.gizmopromotions.co.uk will know we already demonstrate that free Apps are available to download that enable android Smartphone’s to communicate with and extract information from contactless bank cards and biometric passports. These apps currently work within legal parameters but there are enough tech savvy people out there on the Dark side who will try to crack any security measures. A great example is the recent attacks on computers in Santander and Barclays branches in London.

 

So how do you guard against accidental or fraudulent scanning of your contactless bank card? (The ones with a Wi-Fi symbol on the front). You could wrap your card in Tin foil or nuke it in the microwave as some more extreme solutions or you could take simple low cost measures. The VoyagerBlue contactless credit card shield sits in your wallet or purse right next to your contactless bank card. It blocks the radio signal from official terminals or from someone trying to read it with a scanner you are unaware of.

Using your card normally and speeding through the gate is simple, take it out of your wallet or purse to use and then replace next to the shield, keeping you in control and making sure your valuable money and data is secure at all other times.

 

Take a look at the shields and decide for yourself, for less than £5 you can prevent unwanted scanning, either accidental or fraudulent. You can also take a look for our new products about to launch to prevent loss of your wallet. WalletTag will alert you in seconds if you become separated from your wallet/purse passport etc.

 

See a selection of video on our YouTube page

 

 

Contactless, Scare stories our balanced view.

The recent Stories about contactless cards have generated a great amount of interest from both sides of the fence. A lot of what has been said is made out to be from one kind of expert or another. Watchdog, Radio 4, The Mail etc. 

                                                      www.gizmopromotions.co.uk

To let you know where our expertise comes from; the inventor of VoyagerBlue; Andre Kay spent 30 years presenting and supplying authentication technologies to government, airlines and airports for the detection counterfeit or altered travel documents.

His invention of a shielding solution specific for 13.56 MHZ – ISO 14443 Type A&B started more than six years ago, way before most of the card providers actually provided contactless credit and debit cards. It took many years of development and almost 5 years to get the patent granted; it was a lengthy, complex process. 

Taking the issue very seriously and rather than simple select a technology that might do the job e.g. tin foil or a metallic wallet , VoyagerBlue employed the academic services of the University of Bolton to develop a technology that they and we now know, does the job! Proven! Check out many of the articles on the web which say some products (i.e. wallets sleeves etc) work to different levels and some are not good at all.  

VoyagerBlue has been tested and retested and it works. See the video demonstration here. VIDEO DEMO 

Like antivirus software, we provide a solution that works well, is specifically designed to block (RF) radio frequencies communication with contactless cards without your knowledge and if the public feel a threat, driven by news coverage, yet substantiated by Universities such as Newcastle Universities Department of Cyber Crime & Computer Sciences and wish to buy a solution that gives them peace of mind and protection, we have that with our VoyagerBlue credit card and passport shields. 

We are fully aware that bank security experts place a high value on security. However it is our understanding from numerous cryptologists and cryptanalysts, if it was coded by a human, it can be decoded by a human. I think most people are also aware that organised crime gangs also put a high value on breaking that security. We can assure you the level of sophistication of these very well organised and well financed criminal groups is perhaps equal to that of government departments and many banks. For example the $45Million Heist a few weeks ago was completed by hacking into a banks security system and cloning cards.

 

We also know that banks send out contactless cards in “shielded envelopes” so they must envisage some “threat”.

 

It is public knowledge that modern android phones have the technology to scan contactless bank cards and passports with any number of extremely talented “apps” experts out there both professional and amateur it is not beyond the realms that some may want to use their skills for non legitimate reasons.

We do believe contactless cards have a lot to offer, for example on travel networks skimming through pay points without hesitation. We also know that the nature of the contactless chip which is only activated by scanner signal allows it to be contacted by a signal from unauthorised sources. If that signal also carries the correct method of releasing the information contained on the card then the data will be passed. Watch video of Oystercard use with VoyagerBlue here. OYSTER?VOYAGER 

The VoyagerBlue card although technically advanced actually does a very simple task. It makes your contactless card or passport invisible until you want to use it. Simply put it next to your contactless bank card in your wallet or purse. When you want to use the card safely remove from wallet and tap the payment terminal with your contactless card remembering to place back next to the shield to keep your data safe. 

The flexibility of our production allows you to purchase a standard design card which at £4.99 is low cost for such a potentially high value security solution. (Antivirus for your computer is around £30-£40 a year!) 

Or if you desire you can personalise your card with your own unique image.


 

 

Corporate clients can design the card to carry their brand message and benefit from volume production rates. An ideal and innovative item of corporate merchandising. 

We offer a CHOICE in this increasingly technological and “snooping” world to keep a little part of our lives INVISIBLE.

VISIT US AT www.gizmopromotions.co.uk

RFID protection and its promotional use.

There is a major change in the technology of many bank cards, hotel room keys loyalty cards etc. Read here how you can make a stronghold of your wallet or purse to protect your ID. And how you can use the patented VoyagerBlue cards as innovative and useful corporate merchandise to promote your own business.
Patented VoyagerBlue featured on BBC radio2  on the Simon Mayo drivetime show http://goo.gl/EHg9N
The increase in contactless data transfer technology - on our passports, credit / payment cards, loyalty cards and other forms of direct and indirect identity - are all designed to aid efficiency and reduce waiting times. However, each of these technologies lends themselves to sniffing, eavesdropping and skimming - which can be very costly to your personal data.
RFID protection is important because It has been demonstrated that in many cases, this data can be inconspicuously skimmed by the person stood next to you, using a modern mobile phone and apps which are readily available. Copied cards can be printed in minutes using commercially available (and cheap) card printers and re-writers. CBS news reports that every 79 seconds, a thief steals someone's identity.
In London we have first hand accounts of transport system readers accidentally scanning bank cards rather than correctly reading travel cards.  http://goo.gl/fWJvQ and http://goo.gl/RR4R2 are recent articles about this issue.
Prevention is better than cure, and the only effective way to shield your contactless data from theft is by denying access. While there are less conventional methods of achieving this (such as wrapping your cards in tin foil), the patented design of the removable VoyagerBlue shields provides optimal protection in a manner which does not conflict with the convenience of the use of your contactless devices.
With considerable experience in developing and selling technology solutions for government, aviation and the military, we wanted to develop a solution which protected electronic devices working in the 13.56MHz range, including e-Passports, credit/debit/payment cards (including Oyster and sQuid), and electronic identity cards and passes.
VoyagerBlues extensive research with partners including advanced fabric development and transmission experts at the University of Bolton, Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, and the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council resulted in a family of patented products to protect sensitive personal data.
The solution is manufactured from very tough fabric, laminated for surface printing and has the appearance and feel of a standard card - all aspects which are protected in our patents. It is designed to be as thin as possible, ensuring easy insertion into a wallet or passport while providing the maximum protection for data held within the chip.
Further to our current product range, we continue to work with a wide range of partners in the development of the VoyagerBlue product range and other solutions. Should you have any partnering interests in the development or exploitation of technical products, don't hesitate to contact us.
How It Works
All of your contactless devices contain a chip and antenna embedded in the body of the device - this is separate to the contact chip you often see on the surface. When the card is brought into the proximity of a reading device, the reader's electromagnetic field provides power to the contactless chip and a wireless data transfer protocol is initiated with the intent of data transfer.
The majority of contactless devices operate on a frequency of 13.56MHz, consistent with the ISO/IEC 14443 standard. Although this provides an activation distance of approximately 10cm (4ins), this depends on factors including the power within the receiver and size of antenna. Read distances in excess on 1m have been achieved.

Other shielding options effectively "wrap" the chip in a protective material, completely preventing access to the antenna; solutions include wallets and the use of foil which is effective, but often impractical.
VoyagerBlue  take a more innovative approach - our fabric provides an extremely high attenuation rate decreasing the strength of the reader's electromagnetic field and hence preventing communication between the reader and contactless devices.
This has proven to work when placed in front of (and covering) contactless devices, and is less intrusive than individual wallets for each card / passport. The contactless device can be made active by separating the card and shield - effectively taking the chip and antenna out of the protective proximity of the energy-absorbing fabric.
So how can Gizmo and VoyagerBlue help you promote your business?

The cards are available in credit card size and passport size. They can be fully printed on both sides giving you an excellent print area compared to many popular promotional; items such as pens or USB sticks. You can choose to print on one or both sides and we have an optional standard instruction design if you prefer.
Credit card shields give you the opportunity to get your brand in your customers wallet, and unlike other promotional gifts that have a fairly limited life the card will last at least as long as a regular credit card.
The passport shields which are the same size as a standard passport offer even more printing space for your corporate message. Ideal for promoting your brand, and an innovative new product that  will get your clients talking. These remarkable available from minimums of just 50 to any amount.  Promotional merchandise enquiries visit here. http://goo.gl/17ipi
Or if you just want to protect yourself and your family visit our retail site where you can even personalise your  VoyagerBlue shield with family pictures or your favourite holiday snap, you choose.  You can buy VoyagerBlue here. http://goo.gl/lJ6Vn

I thought I would keep you up to date with our progress following our successful first trade show at the Trade Only National Show at the Ricoh arena and also chat a little about our efforts and learning curve in the area of social media.

 

Firstly the show, we had a small booth in one of the outer halls, I think there were five in all, I say think because we were busy pretty much from start to finish, I never got chance to look around, That’s a result in my book in fact we had people look us up after hearing about our innovative products. We even had people coming to visit because they had personal instances of contactless bank card scanning and wanted to discuss VoyagerBlue.

 

We have been following up every lead and in fact we had e-mailed every visitor by the Tuesday following the show. We would like to thank all those who took time out to speak with us. Next year a bigger stand and more staff hopefully.

 

On to the social media side and everyone knows how important this has become. We now have quite a list of sites and links and feeds that strengthen our online presence and would say we have covered the most important ones. Having researched and taken advice we would agree that the following are vital. Facebook page it takes some time to get going but we consider it vital, Twitter more immediate than Facebook and it becomes quite a snowball effect but you can find great advice, contacts and resources if you search and use it well. We also have a BLOG here and on a separate site and also use Quora to post and interact with other likeminded individuals and businesses.

 

Google+ is possibly underestimated, given the power of Google and the threat of a new Facebook search engine it’s likely that Google+ will receive a lot of attention from its parent, ignore at your peril.

 

Pintrest and pearltrees are a little more of a catalogue and unknown quantity yet for us but we are there and we will review later in the year to see what benefit we derive. Pintrest certainly has rave reviews.

 

In addition we have YouTube which we launched our first “silent” movies on recently. It’s a start and soon we will be adding more video. Again this has been touted as a must have for business.

 

Of all the above Twitter and our own website are having the most effect so far and we are encouraged by the efforts of U-do an ethics based website and marketplace, if you are a small company or organisation maybe give them a try. They seem to be quite energetic in promoting their members.

 

Of course all the above only really cost time that means it can be expensive even if not in cash. However the rewards are there if you go after them and if you don’t someone else will. The last piece of advice is to get some social media software that allows you to post on all your sites and schedule the timings of your posts. We are trialling Virulheat at present. That does take away some of the hours you may spend posting to individual sites one after another.

 

Have a great February see you all soon, Gizmo.

 

 

Contactless Technology Update

 

The New Year is well and truly underway and we are rapidly approaching our first Trade Only Show in Coventry at the Ricoh Arena on the 23^rd and 24^th of January. It’s exciting to be meeting so many people and have the opportunity to discuss and demonstrate the VoyagerBlue® range with so many people. The demonstration has a much greater impact than any leaflet or e-mail could ever have.

 

Seeing the look on someone’s face when you show them your Smart phone reading a passport and having every detail come up; passport No, date of birth, expiry date and most convincing the digital photo. This is all done with a free app downloadable from the web. Why not try it for yourself if your phone is NFC enabled (I Phones are not)

Here’s an app that will do it...NFC Reader

 

This will also ping bank cards, both debit and credit that have NFC technology but this free app won’t steal anyone’s cash so don’t worry. Makes you think though doesn’t it? If we can do this then what about the likelihood of someone getting hold of an illegal version that will access data and even make a debit. There are App developers around the world and how would you suspect a person stood next to you with a mobile phone, it’s a normal occurrence but they “could be scanning your contactless data” There are over 250 Million contactless bank cards in circulation and its growing everyday as these cards replace old chip and pin only cards. 25Million UK customers have a contactless bank card. So there is a huge potential market for fraudsters.

 

 

 

There is also accidental scanning, only this week we heard of someone reaching across the counter at a popular coffee shop chain for a napkin, he went close by the terminal for the next till with his wallet in hand and accidentally paid for another customers bill on this other till.

 

London transport has installed 8500 terminals on London buses and admits in a BBC interview that accidental scanning may take place. In other words you may wish to pay on Oyster yet get debited from your bank or credit card. If this is easily done then how easy is all this for the less scrupulous?

 

There are a number of articles on the web about protecting your card with TIN FOIL.

However this web page written by a young science enthusiast proves that it does not work efficiently, have a look at this http://www.omniscienceisbliss.org/rfid.html for more detail.

 

Finally and potentially equally an opportunity for fraudsters is the fact that many hotel room keys are being switched to the same technology, illicit scanning and cloning of your room key is a possibility. We will let you know more on this as we explore the Apps available, we have had word of a hotel key App already so as soon as we have researched this we will let you know. Watch out for updates on this issue. We do know that some of the bigger chains in the UK are using this technology

Including one of the premier budget groups if you get my drift! Checkout our Facebook page and our photographic competition

 

See you soon with more updates

 

Gizmo

 

 

 

 

 

VoyagerBlue on BBC Radio 2 14th DEC

VoyagerBlue's creator will be discussing contactless cards and VoyagerBlue on the Simon Mayo show today 14th Dec 2012

Announcing that London buses are accepting contactless card payments here is what they say about the fact that more than one card may be read;
"If you present two cards together, the reader will normally reject them both," an email to Oyster card users said.
"But there is a small possibility of payment being taken from a card which you did not intend to use."
TfL said it planned to introduce the technology to the London Underground Tube system at a later point.
see the full article here BBC NEWS LONDON BUSES.

Surely this highlights again that unwanted scanning of your cards is possible. If the bus company "may" do it by accident then what about someone with fraudulent intentions?

VoyagerBlue® can protect your other cards and you can still use your oyster card, here's how.
By placing VB on the inside with the Oyster card outside all your VERY important cards are shielded but the Oyster card still work, so:
A) It allows you to proceed as usual through the turnstile without opening your wallet or purse.
B) Keeps all your other contactless cards safe from criminal access at the same time.

Read about how our contactless bank card shields can help you protect whats in your wallet.

 

If you would like information on how you can promote your company then find us here at Gizmo Promotions, you can put whatever corporate message you want on these contactless card shields. A simple yet effective way of getting your message close to your customers. Don't forget we also protect Biometric or e-passports as well!



New ideas for 2013

Christmas fast approaching and everyone is thinking about gifts. So too in the world of promotional gifts. Companies like to give away a memorable item to their key clients, we all enjoy the wine passed out by our suppliers at this time of year or maybe something a bit stronger if they feel you are worth it. There is a reason for this, memory, they want you to remember them and keep doing business.

So apart from the festive tipple what else do companies use to keep them in your mind? Pens, USB sticks are an obvious choice from the current market, maybe you put the corporate calender from a supplier at the top of your wish list? Great for them, their name in view all year. And that is what its about, getting their name in your head for as long as possible.

A key factor in corporate gifting or promotional giveaway campaign is innovation. How unique is a product? We all get many pens with logo's but if you are like me you don't always remember where they are from, unless its a good quality product that you really get on with.

Corporate bodies want something unique, if possible innovative and they like being the first to promote their brand using that product. As we search for new ideas we meet many innovators and we meet people with some crazy ideas.

As we move forward we aim to bring innovations and a few crazy ideas to the promotional market. Following on from our range of contactless bank card and e-passport shields we now welcome a fantastic range of smart phone cases. Smart phone cases with a difference though, these are PowerCases, which are specially designed and engineered to ensure an ultra slim and sleek profile, yet carry a powerful re-chargeable lithium polymer battery that uses the latest technology to give you more power while you’re on the move. Simply charge your iPhone in the usual manor via the mini USB port, and the additional power provided by the PowerCase will keep you in charge for when you need it, the PowerCase gives you up to: 8 additional hours of talk time, 10 additional hours of video playback and 40 additional hours of audio playback. PowerCase can be branded with a corporate logo making it an ideal corporate/promotional gift either to clients or staff. you can view the range here at www.gizmopromotions.co.uk

 

PowerCase Classic Black for 4S

At the budget end of the promotional range watch out for our launch of a simple yet effective in car product for safely carrying such things as takeaways, bottles etc in your car. Of course this product will be launched with a very high visibility branding space making it a cheap but effective advert for your company.

So as we move toward the new year, the excitement of Trade Shows looming and the prospect of new ideas in 2013 Everyone at Gizmo's would like to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

PowerCase Bumper White for 4S

The press and the risk to "contactless cards"

There are still many people who have not realised that their personal data and even their bank balance may be at risk from RFID scanning technology. At Gizmo we understand that this is one of life’s invisible risks. Their have been a number of press and television articles about the issue so in this blog we are exploring what they have to say about the problem and the threat to our identity data.  

The Sun for example has this to say:

 

Twenty million Brits are at risk of having their bank details exposed. Robbed by radiowave 

The telegraph says; An investigation found users of the bank’s contactless debit or credit cards, designed to make payment when held next to special “readers”, could have their details stolen without their knowledge. "Contactless" cards exposed to fraud. 

Channel 4 news has a video exposing how mobile phones can read contactless bank cards.

The newscast can be seen here; C4 News video 

The voyagerBlue® bank card shields and e-passport shields can help provide protection from this invisible threat. Find out more here  www.gizmopromotions.co.uk

 

The product is available to promotional companies as an ideal corporate or promotional gift, with a large printed area for corporate messages and with a great reason for the grateful recipient to keep the gift, this innovative product should be something your company should consider as an ideal marketing tool. 

Developed in the UK in conjunction with university technology departments is a simple yet effective product to protect from hi tech fraudsters. If you have questions or feedback get in touch, and if you know of people who have had ID fraud share your story with us. For an independant video presenting the dangers here's a more technical critique of the issue from Renaud Lifchicz

What qualities do you look for in your promotional or corporate gift merchandise?

Grabbing attention is one thing but you need to keep that interest as long as possible, what should you do to get the best return from your promotional merchandise investment.

You could choose pens, USBs, Baseball caps etc all common items but are they relevant to you? More importantly are they unique to you? If your competitors all give out the same items you will need a reason for yours to be the one that gets used most.

You could try something new and innovative like the VoyagerBlue® contactless card shield from Gizmo promotions. This is product that is unlike any other on the market. Protecting your client everyday from the threat of fraud and ID theft by shielding their wallet or passport from unwanted scanning of their contactless technology.

Made to high quality standards in the UK the product will give lasting protection to contactless Bank cards, membership, loyalty and biometric or e-passports.

More importantly you can brand the whole card with you message, that’s a really big advertising space placed in you clients wallet, It’s a lot of space for a little cost. 86x54mm and then double sided. For the same price as buying your customer a cup of coffee. Passport size is 122x83mm again with the freedom to print your chosen message on one or both sides.

Interested?  Gizmo will be delighted to talk to you. If you are a company wanting to use our remarkable contactless card shields in your promotional campaign we have distributers across the UK, we will put you in touch with a specialist in your area.

If you are promotional distributer then get in touch now to get aboard with Gizmo Promotions and the innovative VoyagerBlue® cards.

 

Get more info from www.gizmopromotions.co.uk.

 

 

Gizmo announce BPMA membership

 

Gizmo promotions are pleased to announce that the BPMA (British Promotional Merchandise Association) have welcomed our company into the organisation as an associate supplier.

 

The BPMA Established in 1965, is one of the UK's leading industry bodies dedicated to promoting best practice around the sourcing, manufacturing and distribution of promotional products.Existing to enable members to be more successful and be seen as exemplars of best practice, centres of excellence to customers and partners within the promotional merchandise industry. The BPMA upholds a strict code of conduct that members must adhere to, and provides access to professional training and development resources to ensure members can continually improve their knowledge and expertise within the industry.

If you are a buyer of promotional merchandise such as the innovative new VoyagerBlue ® contactless card shield as supplied by Gizmo you can rest assured that you are backed by a commitment to high industry standards and best practices. Also as a buyer of such material you can access valuable information about effective campaigns using such merchandise within your marketing strategy.Gizmo promotions are delighted to have achieved membership of the BPMA, a significant stage in our development strategy.

Our aim is to bring exciting new products to the marketplace. The launch of the VoyagerBlue®  contactless card and e-passport shields is an example of an innovative product with extensive creative merchandising and branding opportunity brought to market by Gizmo Promotions.

As a marketing professional you can utilise a remarkably large area for your printed message, either both sides of credit card size or both sides of passport page size. This gives you a fantastic advert that your client has a real reason to keep. The cards help shield from theft and ID fraud by blocking the unwanted scanning of contactless technology such as bank cards and e-passports.

Read more about VoyagerBlue ® cards and how they prevent IDfraud and theft here, and if you have any questions visit the contact page or comment on the blog.

 

RFID fraud and you

 Many people dont realise the cards in their wallet are going contactless! After reading about this technology take a look at your cards and see if they are contactless. Bank cards, membership cards, seaon tickets etc.

A contactless credit card uses RFID technology to store information about your account and to transfer it to the merchant. Standard credit cards carry data on a magnetic strip; when the card is swiped against a reader, the data is transferred.

Contactless credit and debit cards are now becoming the norm for many financial institutions. Similar technology is now being used in many other “plastic card” variations such as loyalty cards, membership cards and in some cases hotel room key cards.

 The primary advantage of the cards lies in the speed of the transaction; bringing the card within a short distance of the reader is sufficient... There are now readers for various applications that can read at 1.5 metres and we would expect this to be exceeded.

Contactless cards are shipped out in RFID shielded envelopes.

These cards contain a chip or tag which in these instances is known as a passive RFID tag. When the tag is scanned the coiled antenna in the chip creates a magnetic field, this allows the chip to become energised and create enough power to transmit the encoded memory data.

An RFID reader is a device that is used to interrogate an RFID tag. The reader has an antenna that emits radio waves; the tag responds by sending back its data.

Most new android phones are now supplied with what is known as NFC capability; (near field communication) they are basically short range RFID readers. You can also buy RFID scanners for as little as £50 on the internet. Combine the availability of NFC reader apps with some unscrupulous technology aware organisations then we can all see the possibility

Your e-passport or Biometric passport contains exactly the same kind of chip. By using the downloadable apps you can copy all your passport info including the digital photo.

 

Why not protect your own “tags” by shielding them with a VoyagerBlue® credit card shield or passport shield from Gizmo Promotions. As an alternative to these shields some people wrap their cards in tin foil,"Fry" the chip in a microwave or buy an expensive metal wallet. 

You can help protect your ID for just a few pounds whereas if your ID is stolen it may not be “just a few pounds”.

 

Thanks to technovelgy

 

 

 We have recently upgraded our in house printer and have seen a significant improvement in performance compared to our last model, our thanks go to our suppliers who have been supportive during the changeover phase and making sure we did not have a break in production. The new machine operates smoothly and has cut production time down by 10-15%. QR CODES NOW AVAILABLE see above at www.gizmopromotions.co.uk
 Combining our in house facility with our Major print partners, an award winning company who have achieved ISO9001, ISO14001 and ISO27001 we are in the excellent position of being able to meet all major production requirements and still have room for rapid growth.
 We are about to go live (as we go to press) on the Trade Only website the specialist promotional merchandise supplier search facility.
 We are delighted to announce our presence at the Trade Only National Show taking Place at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry 23rd and 24th January 2013.
 This along with our ongoing association with Forum events and their program for 2012/13 gives us a nice amount of both industry exposure and product PR as we target brand awareness and expansion of our distributor network.
 If you are a promotional merchandise distributor you can find out about becoming a distributor partner on our distributor page.
Regular readers will have noticed some changes in the website appearance; we are taking on valuable feedback from a wide range of experienced contributors. We always welcome your comments and in fact encourage them. We hope to make it simple for you to navigate the site and also to get across in an easy to understand manner our product offer.
 We know that many people are unaware that they even own a contactless bank card of any kind; however with 24M of these cards out there people are now beginning to catch on. Also the growth in the use of contactless cards into other areas such as membership cards and loyalty cards means awareness is growing. Along with this knowledge comes the awareness of the security threat posed by RFID systems. Add this to the biometric passport numbers there is a huge amount of data available to the airwaves that needs protection.
 Keep checking in to the blog to stay updated with the latest news about contactless technology, fraud and how we can help you prevent ID theft. www.gizmopromotions.co.uk

Cheers Gizmo

Event organisers summit

Fantastic couple of days at The Grange Tower Bridge Hotel for the Event organisers summit thanks to Forum Events met a great variety of different organisations from Blue Chip to big Universities. The reaction to the card was usually at least highly impressed if not  truely staggered!!. As usual many people had got a contactless bank card and didnt even know they had.
 In fact one customer asked me the question is it like a farraday cage, Well only partiallly because it does not fully surround the card, however it does the same job. She asked because she had her card wrapped in tin foil to create the farraday cage . The card does however do the same job of not allowing malicious penetration of the card by any unauthorised party.
Another customer described how he had his ID stolen and how seeing a driving license with someone elses picture with his details was a scary thing. And the big loan they took out as well. One lady described how her stolen passport had been recovered by police and the photograph had been changed. So going by the the stories I have heard in the last few days this ID fraud game is not so isolated.
At the event we were issued with a data card which was (you guessed it) CONTACTLESS not much on it but my scanners could ping it. The new free NFC app on my S3 was super for demonstrating passport reading. Extracting everything needed to create a fake including the digital photo of my ugly mug. Commercial customers If you would like a demo of the readers and how the voyagerblue protects your data from fraud get in touch.
Cricket update amazing penultimate ball win by 2 wkts on Sunday. Chasing 198 my mate Keysy  hit a six to win with just 0ne ball left. Stunning that means win 1 out of 2 and we are Champions.
Hope your week is going well
Cheers Gizmo