This hodge-podge of components is capable of spoofing the magnetic stripe on a credit card. [Sk3tch] built an electromagnet using a ferrous metal shim wrapped in enameled magnet wire. While he was doing the windings [Sk3tch] connected his multimeter to the metal shim and one end of the wire, setting it to test continuity. This way, if he accidentally scraps the enamel coating and grounds the wire on the metal the meter will sound and alarm and he’ll know about the short immediately. An Arduino takes over from here, actuating the coil to simulate the different data sections of a magnetic stripe.

From his schematic we see that the electromagnet is directly connected to two pins of the Arduino. We haven’t looked into the code but is seems there should be either some current limiting, or the use of a transistor to protect the microcontroller pins (we could be wrong about this).

[Sk3tch's] realization of this spoofer can be made quickly with just a few parts. Card data must be written in the code and flashed to the Arduino. If you want to see what a more feature-rich version would entail take a look at this spoofer that has a keypad for changing data on the go.

[via Lifehacker]

Here’s a hack that makes business sense. [PT] recalls last year’s HOPE conference when their booth was using a virtual credit card terminal for purchases that required manual entry of card information. This year they’ll have the same virtual terminal but this magnetic stripe reader will fill it out automatically.

A magstripe reader (reading only, no funny business here) from Mouser grabs data from the card. A Teensy microcontroller board, which identifies itself as a USB keyboard, automatically fills out the virtual terminal from the parsed data. The real question, are his customers comfortable sliding their plastic through a hacked reader?

Do you remember the magnetic card spoofer in Terminator 2? It was a bit farfetched because apparently the device could be swiped through a reader and magically come up with working account numbers and pin numbers. We’re getting close to that kind of magic with [Jaroslaw's] card spoofer that is button-programmable.

Building off of a project that allows spoofing via an iPod and electromagnet, [Jaroslaw] wanted something that doesn’t require a computer to put together the card code. He accomplished this by interfacing a 16-button keyboard and a character LCD with an AVR ATmega168 microcontroller. Card codes can be entered with the buttons and verified on the LCD. Of course this is still dependent on you knowing the code in the first place.

As you know, credit cards use this technology. We don’t think Walmart is going to be OK with you pulling this out in the checkout line, not to mention local five-oh. This technology is also used for building access in Universities, businesses, and hotels. If used in conjunction with some other spy technology you’ll be on your way to becoming a secret-agent-man.