YSK that if you want to enter your PIN discreetly...
Use two fingers to put in your PIN
One actually presses, the other one doesn't
You could generate an absurd amount of possible PINs that could work on your card, giving any PIN peepers a seriously hard time, should they somehow have the intent to get ahold of your card and PIN through spying and pickpocketing
Safes, doors, etc. same principle
Even better tip: commit your false finger movements to muscle memory so not even a recurring stalker can bypass it
This will be totally overboard, and totally unnecessary, most of the time. But like any kind of security, it's good to have it even if you hopefully never need it
59 replies
I usually speak very loudly while entering my PIN, "1 2 3 4"
I've got the same combination on my luggage!
Samsonite!
duh.. it's right there on the briefcase ya goof!
I know, because I now have all your clothes.
My workmate used to do this 30 years ago.
I started copying him - same funny fake password - when I moved on. Then I left that job after 8 years. I came back to that crew 10 years after that, to where most of them had moved en masse after a calamity, and my casual workmate from back then was doing it a decade later -- same funny fake password. I laughed so hard.
0, 0, 0... 0!
It would be even funnier if you yelled out, "5 5 5 1 2 1 2".
The ol' two-finger entry method. It's been around longer than PINs.
I prefer calling it "two in the PIN".
Two in the PIN, one in the PUK
I try to avoid the PUK...but I generally use my CAC for PIV.
Thank you that made me laugh out loud 😁!
Two fingers one pin
Two fingers are ok, but I like to throw in a pinkie just to spice things up.
How shocking.
My method is to put four fingers over the four digits, and keep them in place while moving all of them for each press.
Assuming a four-digit code, your method generates 2^4^=16 possibilities; mine generates 4^4^=256.
Solid idea, I might try that actually
you can hold your other hand over while typing. I know the numbers and dont have to look, thats how I do it.
Thermal camera will reveal the buttons your fingers lingered on and in roughly what order as they cool.
That's why I spend a few minutes afterward licking the keypad to lay false heat signatures and promote faster cooling due to saliva. Attackers/observers are temporarily stunned with confusion and disgust, giving me a brief window to escape unnoticed.
Making sure that machine is warmed up for whatever deposit or withdrawal you had in mind?
Also dissolves some of the oils your hand left behind, which any 2 bit criminal with a forensics lab would pick up on in a second
Easily defended against: Upon finishing your transaction, simply press every single button on the machine in quick succession, with roughly equal firmness.
One of the keypad locks I have on my door requires you press two random numbers after your pin, which I always thought was pretty clever. The one my parents have rotates the numbers, which also works but is reallllly not compatible with being drunk.
What if I use something else to press the buttons with one hand and covering with the other hand?
Did you learn that from the game Splinter Cell? I remember using that trick, I feel like the odds of it working reliably IRL are extremely low though and also requires a thermal camera.
Somebody, maybe a youtuber, demo'd it on a checkout, maybe at a Target. I can definitely see fingerprints with my thermal camera, even after brief touches, and there's phones now with built-in thermal cams. You do need a pretty cool and uniform temperature keypad, so not one with electronics close behind it, and you have to image the keypad pretty close due to low resolution and pretty soon after the victim leaves - waiting for a receipt would normalize the temps. So, yeah, not a very practical attack.
But I feel like this whole thread is topic is pretty high on the improbable and unrealistic scale.
if my debit card is out then it means i had to pull out the wallet, so just holding the wallet over is both convenient and obstructs a bit more
Something that is potentially helpful for stuff like this:
Every nuneric keypad ive eever seen is laid out in the same way and therr is usually a little bump over 5 which is the middle number.
If you can orient yourself by touch with the bump then the numbers will always be in thr same place and you can use this trick and cover the pad with your hand to be extra discrete.
Its really not hard. Like. Blind people can function in the world.
Most card readers I've used in recent years have touch screens.
This is pretty much the norm now.
I learned to use the numpad by touch in high school typing class.
Still probably the most useful class I took in high school
We had very different experiences in typing classes. My teacher would regularly show up drunk (it was my first class of the day, so he was likely drinking until early morning hours), and eventually we just got all our instruction from his student teacher.
Sometimes I'll do like jazz hand fingers on the keypad so it looks like I'm just jamming a bunch of random numbers.
Or I'll mimic something like this but without actually pressing the buttons
my pin is 12 digits, I could say it out loud and no one would still be able to get in
Is it 1111 1111 1111?
ShitNot any more!1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2, then?
ChatGPT suggest a secure 12 digit password for me, please.
0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
😆👏🫶
Hold my shit, I got one:
4 8 15 16 23 42
My bank limits me to 4 digits, saying it "technically fulfills" the card supplier's security standards. I guess fake keypads are a bigger risk than people standing behind you, but still. Then again, 6 digits, which is the maximum, wouldn't change much, either.
You can do the same on a keyboard. Use your left hand to lightly tap the 1234 keys while actually typing out the characters with your right. Saved me when I had to sit next to some nosy kid once.
I use my penis as a stylus for optimal security--no way the casual viewer can actually see it in person.
Not a casual, no, but us trained competitive penis enjoyers can catch every stroke with ease
If somebody steals your card, wouldn't they run the transaction as credit? They wouldn't need your PIN.
this feels like a very american thing to me, everyone here has debit cards where you can at most get a couple hundred dollars per month from making purchases where you simply tap the card to pay, before it starts requiring you to enter the PIN
That is simple, but very good, advice.
Do people not use fingerprint? Doesn't just make it harder, but eliminates the peeping aspect altogether.
How do you use a fingerprint to enter a pin?
You don't?
This post is about a pin for your debit card not your cellphone
Actually, reading op again it's really unclear. I also thought of putting in a pin into mobile.
(Yes I noticed the word card in there)
I have whooshed and I am sorry.
Thank you.
Lol all good!!!!! But yeah, facial id or fingerprint on the phone for sure haha
😁
If you're in the US or plan to go there, don't use biometrics for your phone. "Law enforcement" can't make you give up your pin, but they can take your biometrics.
Oh, yeah, trust — I do not intend to travel to the US in my lifetime again. Last time was in 2011.
Fingerprint, then pin.
I have both, sure, but if I scan my print, I don't have to put the pattern in.