Originally Posted By: Ian
The card chips have electrical contacts that need physical, mechanical, connection to the reader. They can't be read from a distance.


Exactly. RFID chips are typically read from between three to six inches, but can be read at up to thirty feet with the right equipment. A moderately-skilled bad guy could build a pocket-sized RFID sniffer that would collect data from all the RFID chips carried by people walking by on a sidewalk.