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Spooky story! One thing I cant stop thinking about is... aren‘t credit cards incredibly insecure? I assume we are currently stuck with them for legacy reasons

Spooky story! One thing I cant stop thinking about is... aren‘t credit cards incredibly insecure? I assume we are currently stuck with them for legacy reasons, right? Aren't things like authentication tokens or whatever „solved“ issues? Like, I have never heard of similar attack vectors for PayPal or Stripe? Or do I have a logic error in my thinking and all payment systems will always have attack vectors similar to stealing a number?

iJohnDoe 5y ago
Up until the very end I figured you missed out on a legit credit. Pretty impressive if they were that convincing. It’s not easy for fly-by-night hackers to makes calls like that and sound remotely convincing. They are putting in some effort. Receptionists at car dealerships rotate more often than toilet paper. The only ones that might have an idea of anything going on at a car dealership is the service manager, sales manager, and owner. Even then it’s a crapshoot.
ericmay 5y ago
> One thing I cant stop thinking about is... aren‘t credit cards incredibly insecure? Yes but by and large the fraud isn’t your burden, it’s the banks. So you can push the onus of security on them. Getting a new card to replace your compromised one is quick and easy, and you can do things like lock the card from use from banking mobile apps. The banks also do some analysis for fraud prevention. If you spent $5 in Ohio and an hour later in Mumbai they’d know it’s fraud b/c you can’t travel there that fast. Or if you never buy jewelry and try to buy some your card may be declined even if it’s a legit purchase. But overall specifically in the case of credit cards I’ve found that I just don’t care about the security and it’s up to the issuing institution to figure out. Debit cards on the other hand are much more sensitive because it may take time to get cash back and you may have to fight the bank a little bit to prove you didn’t make a withdrawal. Meanwhile maybe you miss a car payment because your account was emptied. Long story short, always always always* use a credit card for day-to-day purchases, if not for the cash back or points but for the security as well. * obviously there are times where using a debit card makes sense but they are rare and specific.
toomanybeersies 5y ago
Yes, credit cards are insecure. But it's also relatively easy to do a chargeback. > Or do I have a logic error in my thinking and all payment systems will always have attack vectors similar to stealing a number? If you have a secret number, that secret number can be stolen, whether by hacking your computer or beating you with an alkathene pipe. A secret key for a bitcoin wallet is fundamentally no different to a credit card number, it's just a larger number. The key difference though is that with a credit card, when my secret number is no longer secret, I can repudiate any transactions with a chargeback, and recover my lost funds (technically, the bank is writing off my debt, but same same).

iJohnDoe 5y ago

Up until the very end I figured you missed out on a legit credit. Pretty impressive if they were that convincing. It’s not easy for fly-by-night hackers to makes calls like that and sound remotely convincing. They are putting in some effort. Receptionists at car dealerships rotate more often than toilet paper. The only ones that might have an idea of anything going on at a car dealership is the service manager, sales manager, and owner. Even then it’s a crapshoot.

ericmay 5y ago

> One thing I cant stop thinking about is... aren‘t credit cards incredibly insecure? Yes but by and large the fraud isn’t your burden, it’s the banks. So you can push the onus of security on them. Getting a new card to replace your compromised one is quick and easy, and you can do things like lock the card from use from banking mobile apps. The banks also do some analysis for fraud prevention. If you spent $5 in Ohio and an hour later in Mumbai they’d know it’s fraud b/c you can’t travel there that fast. Or if you never buy jewelry and try to buy some your card may be declined even if it’s a legit purchase. But overall specifically in the case of credit cards I’ve found that I just don’t care about the security and it’s up to the issuing institution to figure out. Debit cards on the other hand are much more sensitive because it may take time to get cash back and you may have to fight the bank a little bit to prove you didn’t make a withdrawal. Meanwhile maybe you miss a car payment because your account was emptied. Long story short, always always always* use a credit card for day-to-day purchases, if not for the cash back or points but for the security as well. * obviously there are times where using a debit card makes sense but they are rare and specific.

toomanybeersies 5y ago

Yes, credit cards are insecure. But it's also relatively easy to do a chargeback. > Or do I have a logic error in my thinking and all payment systems will always have attack vectors similar to stealing a number? If you have a secret number, that secret number can be stolen, whether by hacking your computer or beating you with an alkathene pipe. A secret key for a bitcoin wallet is fundamentally no different to a credit card number, it's just a larger number. The key difference though is that with a credit card, when my secret number is no longer secret, I can repudiate any transactions with a chargeback, and recover my lost funds (technically, the bank is writing off my debt, but same same).