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Old February 19th 16, 12:52 AM posted to uk.transport.london
[email protected] rosenstiel@cix.compulink.co.uk is offline
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Default Contactless fraud

In article
-september.
org, (Recliner) wrote:

wrote:
In article

-septembe
r.org,
(Recliner) wrote:

tim... wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 19:42:30 on Thu, 18 Feb
2016, tim... remarked:

https://thestack.com/security/2016/0...-causes-facebo
ok-furore/

Obviously public transport is a prime place for this to happen
given the crowding but a couple of things:

- Surely a POS terminal is linked to a traceable bank account
which means as soon as someone complains then the games up isn't
it? Unless they're even set the bank account and POS account up as
another unsuspecting victim.
- Wifi doesn't work well in the tube. Though LU have helpfully put
it in most (all?) underground stations now so I guess thats not an
issue.

Or just keep your contactless card in your wallet next to an
Oyster, and the "card clash" will ensure neither can be read.

Why would you let someone walk up to you and place a POS terminal on
the pocket containing your wallet (and then not punch him in the
face afterwards)?

It'd be inside a backpack,

doesn't seem to be an overly certain way to catch someone's wallet
pocket, to me

It doesn't need to be. Just harvest the low hanging fruit, in business
jargon terms.


I'm sure it relies on people not checking their credit card
statements, at least for items under _30.


Why would that be necessary? Even if someone does check their credit card
statements and spot the dodgy transactions, it might be weeks after the
fraud was committed. By then, the fraudsters will be long gone.


If they are gone they would have left quite a data trail. But because of the
fairly small amounts involved I suspect they wouldn't be gone that quick,
slightly increasing the chance they might be caught.

If the card owner can't block the scan physically, the only other way of
preventing the fraud would be for the card suppliers' systems to spot it
in real time and block or reverse the transactions.


I wonder how feasible that would be? Get the baking foil out, folks!

--
Colin Rosenstiel