Okay, I keep seeing questions about RFID tags, so I figured Iâd answer some of the more commonly asked ones here.
What does an RFID do?
Basically, this little circuitboardy thing sends a radio frequency (RF) signal to the gates as you leave the store with one that hasnât been deactivated at the register (ie. purchased). The gates then beep, and it can look suss.
Can other things cause gates to beep?
Short answer: yep. Pacemakers, magnets (in some models of gates), RFID tags sewn into clothes or handbags or books which havenât been deactivated or removed from other shopping trips can all cause the gates to go off. A beeping gate might be cause for âCan we please check your bag, sir/maâam?â but in and of itself, itâs not a guilty verdict. (A gate PLUS suss behaviour or getting caught concealing, and youâre a tad screwed, though.)Â
How do you deactivate RFIDs?
When scanned at the register, a series of lights/magnetic pulses will kill the tag. Obviously not having a register scanner is going to mean you canât DIY this like you can with tag removal. So removal or destruction is your best option.
Removal
These are sticky motherfuckers. Theyâre designed to be difficult (or at least fiddly and arduous) to remove, and theyâre sometimes hidden inside things: packaging, on the sides of boxes, on products in boxes⊠even INSIDE products. If youâre doing a dressing room conceal, go through EVERYTHING in order to find any. (On dressing room concealing, too? A tip from your truly: always take in an extra item or two that you donât even intend to try on, because itâll buy you more time in the dressing room. It obviously takes longer to try on four tops and a dress as opposed to one top.) Â
Then what?
Then use something to stick the tag elsewhere, or hide or destroy said tag.
Hiding
This is the easiest way to deal with them: peel em off surreptitiously (donât look at your hands while youâre peeling!) and then either a) scrunch them up in tissues and dispose of said tissues after in a bin in-store (after trying on sopme makeup samples and then wiping them off your hand with the tissue), or b) stick then to something else in store where they wonât be found for a long time (underneath a shelf in a slow-moving item section at the back) or c) scrunched up into a little ball of nothing and left on the floor/in a bargain bin for someone to sweep up as random rubbish, or d) stuffed into an open-style box of another product.Â
Destroying
If you slice through the square bit, (like, cut the square in half), which reacts to the RF, youâll kill it. Damaging around this will affect the circuitboard, giving it a shorter range, though it still might go off at the gates. If youâre going to sabotage the thing, best do it properly and kill it entirely rather than take chances.
Where are they?
On just about everything valuable, and sometimes, in cheap shit, just because retaillers like seeing lifters dance. High end and expensive cosmetics are a typical find, but perfumes, makeup brushes, eyelashes, small accessories? Can be found there. Lately, a trend seems to be putting them inside stickers which, have, say, a barcode, price, or a warning on them. Occasionally theyâre on items as âprotectionâ from customers opening them.
Sometimes you can see through them and see the circuitboard underneath, sometimes the paper theyâre contained in is VERY thick and you canât.
My personal motto is âIf itâs thick, donât let it stick,â and generally thatâs served me well.Â
But the item already has a hard tag on itâŠ
And there might be an RFID one lurking inside, too. Particularly with handbags and wallets, check the zippered sections inside them. One visible hard tag can be a deterrent to most lifters, but the ones who can remove that tag might get confident⊠and the RFID inside will catch them out. Itâs probably called âa two-pronged approach to loss preventionâ or something. Always check inside things, people.Â
