Convenience at a cost

Oh the wonders of modern technology 3D TV’s, phones, computers and all the rest. Recently a new way to pay for goods has been released. Very similar to the swipe and pay ticket systems featured on modern public transport the device enables customers to quickly pay for goods and services without pressing a button or fiddling with cash. MasterCard’s paypass card has just come out and it looks like some great technology. You have probably seen MasterCard’s ads for the card featuring the slogan “Tap & Go”. The card makes it easy to quickly pay for goods under one hundred dollars with just a swipe of the card.

At first this card seems great, who wouldn’t like to save 30 seconds of their life? But the catch is that without a password (Pin number) on the card anyone can take your money and this is just what is happening. Fraudsters have been increasing stealing details from the cards without even touching them taking all the funds right out of peoples account and they don’t even notice until it’s too late.
Devised with a cleaver scheme fraudsters have purchase machines which can read the card information. With some tweaking they are able to take your cash without them even touching it. The card readers have had their reading card abilities amplified and can read cards from a distance of over 20 centimetres. Fraudsters have then put the readers in bags connected to laptops which go around recording details of every card it can find. And it’s very easy to come within 20cm of the card. Imagine if you are walking along the street with the card in your purse or wallet and someone brushes past you. You then discover a few days later that all your money is gone, it’s that simple. A fraudster could do this to hundreds of people each day and that adds up to a lot of money.
Even though this technology is great it’s just too risky to use it and people can and will rip you off when they can.