Had my bank card cloned this week i was fortunate that the bank picked up on it quickly and only a few small transactions were made i had no idea at the time. No idea how they did it but at least they did not get my pin number or they could have cleared my account. Be carefull folks times are bad enough without screbs nicking our money.
The easiest way to stop someone scanning your card whilst in your wallet* is to have two contactless cards in your wallet. *which is more urban myth than real risk anyway
The most common ‘cloning’ of cards are people fitting false fronts on machines, then from people skimming card details from online transactions (usually small scale - rogue employee). For anyone genuinely scared their card will get skimmed in their wallet, leave the cards at home and just use Apple or Google pay.
Ive had cards cloned twice - in the days I used to do a lot of foreign travel to the Far East ( Singapore Taiwan and the Philippines) I think its far more likely it was copied when you gave it to someone to put in a machine than someone scanning it whilst in your wallet in a pocket First time Barclaycard alerted me when someone went on a spending spree in Delhi buying carpets and expensive clothing Second time I had to alert them when I saw a couple of strange transactions on my statement but both times but in both cases sorting it out was quite simple and I didnt finish up out of pocket. Mrs F had a more frustrating experience - one day she got an impersonal text from "HSBC" saying there was a suspected fraud and asking her to call on a number she didnt recognise and it looked like a fake text. To be safe she phoned the normal phone banking number and asked to check if the text was genine and was told all was fine and to ignore it. A few days later her card stopped working when she chased up the Fraud dept had sent the original text and because she hadnt contacted them they stopped the card. She wasn't impressed especially as there wasn't any fraud either she had just bought a couple of things she didnt usually buy.
I am going to get some rfid card blockers that you put in your wallet that are supposed to stop cards being scanned.
It happened to me about 3 years ago. I had used it to enter a race online. I got a text from the bank a month later asking me if I had spent £950. This was for designer clothing in London. I was already on my way to the bank to deposit a cheque, so I was in Santander in half an hour. It affected about 400 people. They managed to completely empty clear some bank accounts out too. It was initially thought to be connect to fuel sales in Silkstone but I don't buy there. A lady who entered the race did it from Spain was also affected so it eliminated the fuel station theory. It turned out to be an issue with the company processing the race entries. They traced the data leak to Ireland and the USA.
Because the card has most likely been scanned in my wallet whilst in my pocket and a rfid card blocker stops them being scanned.
As said above. People can scan your wallet from your pocket etc (I think Supertyke's handbag got done once..), but you can get scan proof sleeves & wallets. Mrs C is sending me one, not that they'd find very much £, anyway..
Are you absolutely certain that’s what happened? As above it’s pretty rare, and if you have more than one contactless card in your wallet that is the same as buying another rfid tag (ie a reader can’t get a clean signal from your cards rfid tag if there’s another one in your wallet).
what about buying stuff? To the best of my knowledge, small scale vendors are highest risk (and card details being farmed from online sales) - and oddly contactless is safer than using a PIN machine almost everywhere. And as I posted earlier, if you do only use contactless, your phone has zero chance of being scanned in your pocket, so a much safer bet than a card.
Just like all the furore around 'insurance scams' (which are perpetuated by insurance companies) most of the scare stories about contactless cards being a big risk can be traced back to the US where banking has a vested interest in the status quo.
I use cash again now. No fuss and i find it much easier to budget. Do you know a bloke called Jeff who lives in Poggy by the way? He is part of a Raggy Lads group