The cell phone, as a tool and main ally of daily life, not only serves when it comes to communication or entertainment.
It can also be key to avoid falling into classic scams with
fake money, apocryphal credit cards
or products that claim to be original, but in reality are not.
Both Android
and
iOS
devices
offer a variety of specific applications in their respective download stores, which are usually available for free, although with a limited set of features.
If these versions do not completely satisfy your needs, as usual, you can always upgrade to its premium version, paying.
Credit card detector
"Contactless" or
contactless technology,
as it is known worldwide, has been in force since the mid-nineties but only became widespread a decade ago with the appearance of payment services from Google and Apple.
At the same time as its adoption, as expected, cybercrimes also grew and the need to have a cell phone to verify if the data on the plastic is real or was the product of software that generates random numbers to make payments.
The NFC (EMV) Card Reader application, available for Android.
The NFC Card Reader (EMV)
app
, which can be downloaded free of charge from the Google Play store, is used precisely to detect the legitimacy of a Europe and Mastercard or Visa card.
Using the cell phone's NFC, a card with a
contactless
chip is linked to another device that implements this contactless communication protocol (public and accessible on the Internet) sharing the following information: the card number (also called PAN, Primary Account Number), the name of the holder, the expiration date and the history of the last transactions made with the card.
money detector
The cell phone, with certain applications, can become an effective counterfeit money detector, just like credit cards.
There are several tools available for iOS and Android, but as its developers clarify, everything should not be left to technology: touch, as always, is used for complete verification.
Cash Reader Bill Identifier, available on Google Play Store and App Store (iPhone).
Cash Reader Bill Identifier
.
The most famous money verification app on Android cell phones.
It works only with the cell phone camera, and is capable of giving a result in less than 10 seconds.
It has a large number of currencies in its database, including the Argentine peso and many others from Latin America.
Although the app has a free version, which identifies 10 or 20 peso bills, when you pay the monthly ($0.95) or annual ($6.99) subscription, many more features are unlocked.
However, Cash Reader Bill Identifier offers a 14-day trial period.
The app was designed specifically for people with visual disabilities, who may have a harder time verifying their bills, so it also reads the value out loud.
Cash Assist
is another option that can be downloaded for free to
Android and iOS.
Of course, the application
detects false series
, but it does not ensure that the bill is legitimate.
For this you will have to do some extra checks, such as checking the texture of the paper, the watermark against the light and the security strip.
Cash Reader Bill Identifier.
Counterfeit and MTC Money Reader
.
The first is exclusive for devices with iOS operating system, while the other works on Android.
Both also use the camera to detect if the bill is fake or real.
The Counterfeit developers assure that the app detects 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 Argentine peso bills without problems.
It also works with dollars, euros, reais and yuan.
NoteSnap: Banknote Identifier
NoteSnap: Banknote Identifier
.
Similar to the other applications, it works with the iPhone's cell phone camera and analyzes the value of the bill, the currency and its serial number, with which it verifies its veracity.
Additionally, NoteSnap: Banknote Identifier allows users to save a digital collection of scanned banknotes, another reason for those who are collectors.
It also has a function in which it detects bills with a printing error, such as those that have a single digit repeated many times in their serial number, and gives an approximate value that collectors would pay.
This option, however, is available for a limited number of currencies.
Fake products
FeaturePrint.
FeaturePrint
, developed by the American Alitheon, is the application created to solve the classic problem of product counterfeiting.
Its developers explained that they were motivated by the phenomenon that extends to the art world and auction houses;
although the problem also affects
online purchases
.
This mobile app uses
image recognition techniques
based on artificial intelligence algorithms.
Through these techniques, surface details in physical objects are sought and converted into "unique mathematical identities."
Thus, they are able to identify if a product is fake or not.
They explain that their app does not only rely on photography to determine if a product is fake.
During the process, they analyze the photograph and provide a set of numbers that refer to the unique characteristics of a product.
In this way, shared features between different products can be discarded, and only the information that makes an object unique is preserved.
The system developed by Alitheon does not require QR codes, RFID tags or barcodes, since, as they explain, they can be damaged, manipulated or lost.
It would also not be necessary to resort to identification codes such as IMEI, which allows you to check if a smartphone of a certain brand is fake.
On the other hand, several computer security specialists warned of the
potential dangers
involved in using this type of application and the precautions that must be taken to preserve the private data that is stored on the phone.
"The use of mobile applications poses various risks for users such as downloading malware (malicious software), spyware (spyware), adware (malicious advertising spam software) or, in some cases, it can steal sensitive user information such as accounts, passwords and confidential bank account numbers," warns Luis Corrons,
Avast
Security specialist .
And he adds: "Sharing confidential information, whether in apps or other media, can lead to identity theft, misuse of data, theft of money or credit/debit cards, and theft of accounts and passwords."
Martina Lopez
, Computer Security Researcher at ESET Latin America, analyzed the operation of these applications.
"By involving these common scams involving falsified receipts, they would be
programs that would search for anomalous
or erroneous data by taking advantage of the fact that electronic receipts have a unified structure for each entity that supports them," she explained.
At the same time, the specialist also highlighted the problems that can arise from installing one of these applications on the cell phone outside the control of Google or Apple.
"Beyond the application method, there is a risk that cyber attackers will take advantage of this situation to create fake applications that steal confidential information, either by requesting it from the user for the supposed operation of the app (such as the seller's account information ) or the telephone where it is installed," Martina López completed.