I think a microwave got my credit cards!

[LarryC]

The past two days, I found out that none of my three credit cards would read! Gas pumps, grocery checkout counters, and ATMs were no good to me!

I checked my status with all three -- no problems, thank you, and since I didn't lose or compromise the cards, replacement cards are on the way, thankfully with no changes in numbers or PINs.

The bad cards look to be in fine condition, and the magnetic strips look intact. The numbers are still good, and clerks usually can successfully key in the card number manually.

I was told that microwave ovens send out high EMF signals that can erase magnetic strips, and then I remembered I'd left my wallet on top of the microwave for a day or two. Apparently that did the job. Sure enough:

Can Your Microwave Oven
Destroy Your Credit

My Panasonic microwave is over 20 years old, so the shielding probably isn't up to snuff.

[mikebse2a3]

Your cards would more likely have been damaged by their closeness to the magnetic field of the magnets of the magnetron tube assembly in the microwave.

[BigStewMan]

i had an MRI of my neck and forgot to empty my pants pockets. went to the grocery store later that day and my card wouldn't work. The clerk said jokingly..."have you been around any large magnets lately?" it was inconvenient; but, funny.

[dtel]

I didn't know that but I told my son in law and he said cell phones can erase the strip also, could be [bs] with the phone ?

[JL Sargent]

I've done it to my cards working aound electrical control equipment.

[Groomlakearea51]

And to just think what the microwave does to your other "valuables" when you stand in front of it waiting for the instant coffee to get hot..... []

[JJkizak]

And I wonder how those fellow techs I knew cooking steaks on 50,000 watt feedhorns made out on the augmentation of the population.

JJK

[Groomlakearea51]

A dying breed...... [6]

[Speakmeister]

It blows me away when i see people standing right up at the window of a microwave watching their food cook. It's a thousand plus watts of microwave energy, look what a few milliwatts of signal to a phone can get around, absolutely no problem finding my phone even in the elevator at work.

[Jay481985]

I didn't know that but I told my son in law and he said cell phones can erase the strip also, could be with the phone ?

I keep my wallet and cellphone in the same pocket for over two years they still work.

[dtel]

I didn't know that but I told my son in law and he said cell phones can erase the strip also, could be with the phone ?

I keep my wallet and cellphone in the same pocket for over two years they still work.

But when it's in your pocket it not transmitting, could that make a difference ?

[Jay481985]

I didn't know that but I told my son in law and he said cell phones can erase the strip also, could be with the phone ?

I keep my wallet and cellphone in the same pocket for over two years they still work.

But when it's in your pocket it not transmitting, could that make a difference ?

I have an android phone which means it always is transmitting. It lasts 2/3 of a day battey wise because it always transmits.

[dtel]

I have an android phone which means it always is transmitting. It lasts 2/3 of a day battey wise because it always transmits.

I had no clue any of them done that. [:|]

[Groomlakearea51]

Every 5 seconds..... the phone is sending it's GPS location to the nearest tower... Some of the newer phones do that, even when "off". Thank DHS, NSA and other folks who are looking out for your "security"......

[H]

[Jay481985]

Google steals my location and uses it to show on googlemaps if the highway is trafficky or not to other users.

[LarryC]

For folks' information, I got my replacement cards from USAA MasterCard and AMX the next business day (today, Monday) after calling in what happened. Very good service IMO.

[skonopa]

I didn't know that but I told my son in law and he said cell phones can erase the strip also, could be with the phone ?

I keep my wallet and cellphone in the same pocket for over two years they still work.

But when it's in your pocket it not transmitting, could that make a difference ?

I have an android phone which means it always is transmitting. It lasts 2/3 of a day battey wise because it always transmits.

These modern smartphones are constantly transmitting intermittently. Everything from checking if you got new mail/SMS to polling the towers for neighbor cells (and determining if it needs to initiate a handoff sequence) to updating the time as well as sending GPS locations.

Also, these modern cell phones are transmitting in the FRACTIONS of a a milliwatt (typical signal strength ranges from something like -50 to -80 or so dBm (Decibel/milliwatt). (although the table says -10 to -30 dBm, but actual experience is showing the former) 0 dBm is 1 milliwatt. You are getting far more radiation from the sun than you would get from typical cell phone signals, even if holding the thing up against your head (which is typically around 24 dBm (around 500 milliwatts) This is also which is why I have issues with all these claims of cancer caused by cell phones. Maybe back in the analog days when the things transmitted upwards of 5 watts of power on the 850 MHz band, I can probably see, but even still - but that is a whole 'nother topic that I don't want to get into.

I've had cell phones in the same pocket as my wallet and I've never had it nuke any of my credit cards. However, I can see it happening if left on top of microwave and also agree it was probably more to do with the magantetic field from the magnatron vs actual microwave leakage.

FYI, for the past nearly 4 years, I've been working in cellphones forensics and tracking (as to exactly what I do is classified, so not even going there), so I do know a thing or two about how cellphones work. [8-|] When it comes down to it, it is amazing that the technology even works as well as it does, esepcially with the modern 4G protocols such as WiMAX and LTE.

[Jay481985]

What I wanted to say was my android phone does this weird thing, if it detects you are traveling faster than say 10 mph or so and on a highway or road route, it detects this as you being in a car. Google pings all the android phones in that vacinity as well and if the threshold is high enough or whatever parameters they put meets the requirement they can show in realtime on googlemaps that a particular stretch of highway has a lot of traffic (red) medium traffic (yellow) and light traffic (green)

[skonopa]

What I wanted to say was my android phone does this weird thing, if it detects you are traveling faster than say 10 mph or so and on a highway or road route, it detects this as you being in a car. Google pings all the android phones in that vacinity as well and if the threshold is high enough or whatever parameters they put meets the requirement they can show in realtime on googlemaps that a particular stretch of highway has a lot of traffic (red) medium traffic (yellow) and light traffic (green)

That is true, that even depending on what applications you have on your cell phone will effect if it transmits or not, such as the google maps and the traffic updates as shown here. Not only that, but often time, some of these apps are always looking for updates as well and notifies you if it finds an update.

So the point is that it is very possible that even if put to 'sleep' and put in your pocket, the phone can still be transmitting intermittently. Of course, for the really anal or the tin-foil hat types, it is possible to disable that (such as putting it in 'airplane mode', but then you would not be able to recieve calls if you do that)

[WMcD]

For what it is worth: My HTC Fuze had enough of a magnet in it (must be the speaker) to pick up paper clips. Maybe this can cause problems with mag stips -- but I don't know.

WMcD