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Contactless card scam


Paul223
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https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10208503250522637&id=1348863524

 

For those without Facebook, the story is about a guy with a mobile card reader / point of sale device / whatever you want to call it, he's stood up on public transport and the suggestion is that buy entering an amount below £30 and passing the card reader over a handbag / pocket containing a card he may be able to collect a payment!

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What you need is a wallet that protects bank cards inside like this one i have. It does work too because i know someone who works in the security industry who attempted to scan my cards and eventually said yes it works very well!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00K256JRG?keywords=bad%20mother%20****er%20wallet&qid=1455734676&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

 

You do need to have a unique sense of humour for the wording on the wallet though.

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What you need is a wallet that protects bank cards inside like this one i have. It does work too because i know someone who works in the security industry who attempted to scan my cards and eventually said yes it works very well!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00K256JRG?keywords=bad%20mother%20****er%20wallet&qid=1455734676&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

 

You do need to have a unique sense of humour for the wording on the wallet though.

i have that wallet in black sans security device :unhappy:

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If a criminal wants a credit card why would they go to the effort and expense of stealing credit card info one card at a time when he or she can buy it for a few £ from several places on the Internet,

In fact it’s significantly cheaper than buying all the necessary RFID attack equipment and sitting in a public square, which is likely to have one or more security cameras trained on it these days.

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If a criminal wants a credit card why would they go to the effort and expense of stealing credit card info one card at a time when he or she can buy it for a few £ from several places on the Internet,

In fact it’s significantly cheaper than buying all the necessary RFID attack equipment and sitting in a public square, which is likely to have one or more security cameras trained on it these days.

Because they aren't stealing the card info, they are making charges against your card with the contactless. That is pure cash basically. At £30 or so a hit you could rack up a couple thousand a day in public places before you got caught.

 

Rick

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Because they aren't stealing the card info, they are making charges against your card with the contactless. That is pure cash basically. At £30 or so a hit you could rack up a couple thousand a day in public places before you got caught.

 

Rick

Exactly, card machine + contactless payments + busy public places = easy, to easy, and to be honest how many people would notice £25 payment on their account quick enough to realise they've been scammed

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Because they aren't stealing the card info, they are making charges against your card with the contactless. That is pure cash basically. At £30 or so a hit you could rack up a couple thousand a day in public places before you got caught.

 

Rick

 

It's not quite as simple as that, getting hold of a merchants account isn't as simple as people think and suspicious transactions can just as easily get a merchant account stopped as a abnormal spend pattern on a member of the public's card. And then there's the issue of funds clearing into a merchants bank account, and back out and turned into cash before the banks notice what is going on.

 

Ideally if your going to do this you would need an account with a bank that is a know fast clearer of cash for card transactions, and would need a bit of custom hardware to randomise the ammounts been charged against the cards to allow you more time before the banks inbuilt fraud protection kicked in.

 

I'm not saying that it can't/won't happen, it's just no as easy as people think.

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I think it's one of those scare stories. I'm sure it could be done if you had a contactless reader but that would have to be linked to an account for visa/mastercard/amex to actually pay. Wouldn't they wonder why there was loads of queries relating to this account?

 

Urban myth IMO.

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I don't have that facility on my card, am I correct in thinking that the next card is have will have this on.

I think I may be refusing the card and request one without.

 

Most new cards are been issued with it. I'm not sure you'll be able to ask for one without it, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

RFID blocking wallets are cheap enough, if it really worries you. I've been using one for a couple of years now.

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Ifthe amount was say only £3 or £4 and the merchant called themselves macdonalds would anyone who had been scammed ever notice???

I don't have that facility on my card, am I correct in thinking that the next card is have will have this on.

I think I may be refusing the card and request one without.

It's easy to disable
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I think this is the usual FB scaremongering.

 

You can't just buy a card reader and and scan anyone's card and have the money magically land in an account. Even if someone did do this with a legitimate merchant account, someone would follow up the unusual payment and the banks would investigate, follow up on the payment and ensure the receiving bank repays the money.

 

If you've got an iPhone with contactless, put your card on there and use that instead. The phone won't authorise a payment unless your thumb print is on the sensor. Not to mention that the token authentication means that absolutely none of your personal information is transmitted during a transaction, or that your card details are on show.

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Ifthe amount was say only £3 or £4 and the merchant called themselves macdonalds would anyone who had been scammed ever notice???

It's easy to disable

 

That. put a strip of copper tape (slug tape is ideal) over the coil in the card. Job done. It's so thin it won't interfere with the card itsef, and it'll definitely detune that antenna.

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