Amazon Bans the Flipper Zero
Just yesterday we posted about Linus Tech Tips review of the Flipper Zero. In related recent news, Flipper Zero was also banned from Amazon for being a "card skimming device". While the Flipper Zero reading the public NFC data from credit cards, it doesn't seem like it could do much more than what an Android phone could do with an NFC credit card reader app. Anyone skimming credit cards would still require the CVV code and other address details in order to put through a transaction.
This comes along from a bad string of events that has hit the Flipper Zero team. A while back PayPal froze 1.3M of its cash, requiring them to retain lawyers to force PayPal to partially release the funds. US customs then proceeded to seize its US bound shipment for inspection, then to throw salt in the wound, after releasing the goods they were billed $70,000 in storage fees for the pleasure of requiring inspection.
There are also reports of eBay banning the sale of Flipper Zero devices citing 'hacking' devices not being allowed on their platform.
The Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency has also begun seizing imports of Flipper Zero devices.
Flipper Zero is an affordable handheld RF device for pentesters and hackers. It is not based on SDR technology, however it uses a CC1101 chip, a digitally controlled RX/TX radio that is capable of demodulating and modulating many common digital modulations such as OOK/ASK/FSK/GFSK/MSK at frequencies below 1 GHz.
The CC1101 chip has been around since 2007, and there are many similar devices making use of the chip. However, the Flipper Zero is specifically marketed as a pentesting and hacking device, and provides built in software for doing things like replay attacks.
Part of the problem with the bans may also be the huge popularity that the device has received. The device has become exceedingly popular on social media sites like TikTok where users often show it being used mischievously.
Flipper Zero remains available for sale on its website flipperzero.one, for US$169.
like this https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1578249514309279744 ?
“On last night’s primetime TV news (russia-1), this image was used to illustrate “Ukrainian shelling” on Donbas
Except it’s actually from the Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia that so far has left eight Ukrainian civilians dead”
whats with comments threading on this blog, keeps putting replies at the top for me 🙁
NEXT UP: Scanners to detect SCANNERS!
> bad string of events that has hit the Flipper Zero team
I imagine being russian living in Moscow (https://twitter.com/zhovner/status/1333526964771184647) is the biggest event this team should be worried about. Them not emigrating, carefully releasing public statements calling genocide a “special operation”, somehow not being drafted, and with things like this on official support forum (google whole sentence in quote marks to get the source on their page):
>I don’t think it will be that easy at least with the current “special military operation” to get Nazis out of Ukrain
is enough signal for me.
Would you call the 10,000 killed in Donbas before the operation a genocide?
like this https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1578249514309279744 ?
“On last night’s primetime TV news (russia-1), this image was used to illustrate “Ukrainian shelling” on Donbas
Except it’s actually from the Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia that so far has left eight Ukrainian civilians dead”
I got one at the kickstarter, it’s true it can read but not replay credit cards, it’s fun playing around with it as a hobbyist, there are lots of expansion possibilities with the exposed pins, and some creative add-on boards on Tindie, not to mention several forks on GitHub.
Anything could be a weapon.
Now there´s also suspecsious HW/SW SW …
I bought one yesterday from Amazon.. try and remember the world is not the USA…
Please share in what region it is available from Amazon? 🙏
Odd comment to post on a site that is run from New Zealand.
there’s a difference between its and it’s
The U.S. Government and their apparatchik in finance, media, marketing, and social media have just made this a must have item for every juvenile delinquent. What could be promoted as an instrument of education is now promoted with focus only on its nefarious purposes. To be consistent we must now ban all transceivers.