[CarbonKevin]

So here's the background. Bought a North Face down vest this fall in preparation for the typically brutal Winnipeg winter. Sport Chek cashier ran the thing over the. RFID security tag deactivator at time of purchase, left the store without incident, life is good.

A month ago, my vest started setting off every store security system I went through - both entering and exiting. Annoying as hell, so at one store I actually had the manager run my vest over their deactivator, and it did, indeed deactivate a security tag - it made the classic "bong" sound. Left the store without incident.

Two days ago, it started happening AGAIN, at the same stores as it had happened at before - so again, I asked then to run my vest over the deactivator, this time I did it in sections, and found the tag is located somewhere near my left pocket.

This is a very odd phenomenon - these tags do not spontaneously reactivate, yet mine has risen from the dead twice now. What could be causing this RFID security tag zombie apocalypse?

I suspect it's the NFC antenna on my Z10, since I leave NFC on always and put my phone in the left pocket sometimes. The tech behind NFC and security tags is the same - RFID - so I think there's at left some validity to this theory.

Any thoughts?

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[djsvet]

Just find the tag and rip it off.

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[CarbonKevin]

It's sewn INSIDE the vest.

What good would an external RFID security tag be? Any thief could just rip it off and walk out with it.

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[djsvet]

Sometimes they are sewn into the label, the one that says how to wash it and so on.



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[CarbonKevin]

I'll have a look later - but you're missing the bigger point of this thread.

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[Jesterbomb]

To the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge, that seems possible.

As absolutely irritating as that would be, could you maybe actually use the tag as though it were an NFC tag?

I don't imagine you could, otherwise people would just use the smart tags app to erase or disable any unlocked merchandise tags they found on anything they wanted to steal.



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[CarbonKevin]

OK! Djsvetjlo, you were right, I found a tag at the left hip on the washing instructions tag. Thank you!

From what I've read there are two main types of security tag - the square sticker ones that are flat, and have a bunch of circuit-looking traces on them, and the long strips that are a couple mm thick.

The flat ones are one time use - the deactivation machines physically destroy part of the circuit, rendering them inoperative.

The thicker ones, which this one is, can be reactivated. I haven't yet found anything that explains how this is done.

I waved my phone over it several times, with and without the smart tags app running, maybe I'll take a gander over there tomorrow and see what happens.

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