4 ms·
No, the system was designed to be convenient. I don't know how serious this problem is, but since this is the first we're hearing about it it must be pretty ra
by Jabbles 13y ago
No, the system was designed to be convenient.
I don't know how serious this problem is, but since this is the first we're hearing about it it must be pretty rare, as contactless cards are much more widely used in, say, Hong Kong.
We're designing an easy method of paying for small items, not arming nuclear weapons. We'll accept 1 in 1e6 errors.
- thejosh 13y agoHere in Australia we have PayPass which is Mastercard. Most places have eftpos terminals (handheld pin entry things) where they just tap the card and it charges your card. It scares me that they could charge any amount and you wouldn't know.
- shawnz 13y agoThey can't charge any amount -- pinless transactions are capped to around $20 (depending on the vendor).
- mcpherrinm 13y agoGenerally $50 here in Canada.
- isaacwaller 13y agoContactless transactions are limited to a small amount without entering a PIN.
- taneliv 13y agoBut a fraudulent "merchant" could still install a custom machine at a busy spot, and charge a good percentage of all passing NFC payment cards. Do this in a tourist area or near airport / other terminal, targetting foreign cards, and there's a good chance the fraud detection does not kick in before the weekend is over, and you have $20 x 50,000 "customers" x 2 days = 2 million in bank, converted immediately to bitcoin or similar and laundered before banks open on Monday. Why, yes, I've been the receiving end of a similar scam. It was Visa Electron and PIN-less purchases, then a new opt-out feature. The math was more like 5 customers, but 10,000 euro limit. (No, I did not lose that, or even close, by being lucky.)