Contactless bank cards

[Peter Fairbrother]

David Walters wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Marcus Williamson 
> <marcus at connectotel.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:35:02 +0000, you wrote:
>> 
>>> The banks aren't going to give up on this. Barclays has just sent
>>> one to my son, after he lost his old, contactful one. He didn't
>>> ask for a contactless one, naturally.
>> What's the technology behind it? A type of RFID?
> 
> Yes.
> 
>> If so, what's to stop someone reading the card without your son
>> knowing and/or making small transactions without his knowledge?
> 
> Not much although the risk

whose risk?

> is partly mitigated by requiring a PIN every few transactions and
> capping individual transactions at £15. I assume stolen or cloned
> credit cards are mostly used to withdraw cash or buy high value items
> that can be sold on which in theory you can't do with the data from
> the contactless bit.


Crook A sits beside machine doing £10 transactions. He has a wireless
connection to crook B, who wanders the busy Christmas shopping crowds
with an antenna picking up signals and sending them to crook A ..


e-pickpocketing!


-- Peter Fairbrother