... wireless pickpocketing era

[Peter Fairbrother]

Sergei Lewis wrote:

>> I'm not in Japan :), and I'm a little confused - they pop it in a machine?
>> then it isn't a contactless card, I guess.
> 
> It's contactless - you're supposed to touch it to a pad, like Oyster,
> but it can be read through a wallet.

Presumably it also works through a coat?

> Don't know what the transaction
> limit is, but a lot of shops have Suica pads and the top-up machines
> have menu options for adding the equivalent of several tens of pounds
> to it.
 
I guess it's a top-up card then, like an electronic cash card - if you lose
it, it's considered lost. The new ones here are credit (and debit) cards
though, and afaict you will only know you have been robbed when the monthly
bill comes. 

> Presumably the transaction limit is low enough to make "you're
> not paying for what you think you're paying for" attacks not be
> worthwhile, or we'd be seeing some by now.

It's "you are paying for something when you didn't even know you were paying
at all" attacks that mostly concern me.


-- 
Peter Fairbrother