3 ms·

I'm not sure how it's any difference from a guy with a bucket, clipboard, and nice suit "collecting money" in the form of cash. Unless you're talking about som

by dljsjr 14y ago

I'm not sure how it's any difference from a guy with a bucket, clipboard, and nice suit "collecting money" in the form of cash. Unless you're talking about someone using a mocked up Square reader to do something malicious like harvest credit card information with a custom application or something. In which case you should be terrified of all card readers. This sounds like you're diluting your opinion with a bit of confirmation bias. Yes, credit cards are vulnerable. But do you have any idea how easy it is for a scammer to stick a fake front plate on an ATM and harvest your account information that way? The world is a scary place, but you can't use the fact that there's bad people in the world to shoot down a credit/debit card based fundraising tool.

hospadam 14y ago
I think calebio is talking about the ability to steal a credit card number. If a salesman walks around and asks for cash - and someone gives him $20 - even if they were scammed they only lost $20. If someone comes to my door, asks me to donate $20 via credit card... there's a possibility of getting skimmed. If it's a scam - I stand to lose quite a bit more than the original $20.
- cdr 14y ago
  If you gave him a credit card (and not a debit card or such) you're only on the hook at most for the authorized charges - the same $20. And even then you could chargeback the $20.
  - pavel_lishin 14y ago
    But he's now also caused you a significant amount of stress; not to mention, that's assuming you used a credit card instead of a debit card.
    - lazerwalker 14y ago
      I could be completely wrong, but I've read various mass-media articles that suggest that a single stolen credit card is only worth $1-3 on the black market. If that's true, unless the dude with a Square reader is planning on using the stolen credit card number himself (which is a surefire way get caught), the twenty bucks this hypothetical fraudster legitimately charged you far outweighs the profits he'd get from selling your credit card data.
      - pavel_lishin 14y ago
        You're assuming that the fraudster has taken the time to calculate the risk/reward ratio. It could be someone with just enough tech savvy to steal your credit card, but not enough to not get caught.

by dljsjr 14y ago

hospadam 14y ago

I think calebio is talking about the ability to steal a credit card number. If a salesman walks around and asks for cash - and someone gives him $20 - even if they were scammed they only lost $20. If someone comes to my door, asks me to donate $20 via credit card... there's a possibility of getting skimmed. If it's a scam - I stand to lose quite a bit more than the original $20.

cdr 14y ago
If you gave him a credit card (and not a debit card or such) you're only on the hook at most for the authorized charges - the same $20. And even then you could chargeback the $20.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  But he's now also caused you a significant amount of stress; not to mention, that's assuming you used a credit card instead of a debit card.
  - lazerwalker 14y ago
    I could be completely wrong, but I've read various mass-media articles that suggest that a single stolen credit card is only worth $1-3 on the black market. If that's true, unless the dude with a Square reader is planning on using the stolen credit card number himself (which is a surefire way get caught), the twenty bucks this hypothetical fraudster legitimately charged you far outweighs the profits he'd get from selling your credit card data.
    - pavel_lishin 14y ago
      You're assuming that the fraudster has taken the time to calculate the risk/reward ratio. It could be someone with just enough tech savvy to steal your credit card, but not enough to not get caught.