Contactless scam waiting to happen - London transport

Paul_1977

I travel on London transport, bus, tube and so on.

Every now and then a "conductor" will board the train or wait at the exit of stations without barriers, DLR for example. They are official ticket inspectors. They wear high viz jackets with "Travel safety" or something like that.

They ask you to produce a ticket, for many now this is their debit/credit card. They then scan it and their machine tells them if you have "touched in".

Can you see where this is going.

What is to stop a fraudster doing this, all it takes is a yellow jacket, and for them to stand outside a DLR station. They could scan many cards and earn a good fortune.

There is CCTV etc so maybe this could stop them in some areas.

I am not sure if you refuse to scan your card if they can charge you?

theEnd

But then the bank would just cancel the payment.

Paul_1977

If the bank knows its fraud.

And I thought it was possible to get all the information needed to make online payments from a contactless scan?

colsten

Are you looking for a job?

Your idea doesn't strike me as something that is even vaguely possible as you can't just go and get the equipment that reads cards/phones, debits them, moves the money into your bank account, and allows you to withdraw the lot you made on this one miserable trip, all in time for you and your family to leave the country for somewhere where your paltry takings would keep you from having to beg for your food in the streets. Much more likely you will have been arrested before you even leave the Underground.

JuicyJesus

Paul_1977 wrote: »

And I thought it was possible to get all the information needed to make online payments from a contactless scan?

Except the CVV code, cardholder name and address and Verified by Visa/Mastercard Securecode details, which are needed for virtually all online payments bar some very dumb websites run by people who need shooting (e.g. Amazon).

You have spent far too long thinking up a lurid and unlikely way in which someone could potentially use contactless to scam people, and not nearly enough thinking about why someone would bother, why a fraudster (unknown to station staff and without any TfL identification) aiming to hoover up card details while remaining anonymous and under the radar would spend several hours in one particular very visible location in a bright yellow jacket on CCTV, what they would do if someone passed over an Oyster card and couldn't do anything with it or indeed how someone would obtain something that looks even reasonably like the actual TfL inspectors' machines.

anoncol

Wow! This is scaremongering nonsense. No offence but it's a load of ........

Paul_1977

I reckon it will happen we can wait and see.

JuicyJesus

Paul_1977 wrote: »

I reckon it will happen we can wait and see.

Yes, we can.

benjus

I got my credit card cloned in Brazil and about £750 worth of cash withdrawals were made before I became aware of it.

A few phone calls to the card issuer and it was all sorted, card blocked, transactions reversed and new card in the post.

Annoying, but given how infrequently it happens and the ease of getting it sorted out I'll stick to the convenience of contactless payments. Although I'm not very concerned about TfL as I use Oyster.

jimjames

I think there are probably far easier and less visible ways for someone to get contactless info if they wanted it. The convenience of contactless on the underground is great, does show the dangers of the cards being stolen though as I handed out 2 of my cards to my kids so we could all use the contactless payments for the tube and obviously no check on who they were.

chrisc2615

Have had my card "swiped" twice by scammers in a restaurant. Luckily, I checked on-line shortly after the second one and was able to phone the manager and describe the waitress. She was arrested the same day and the Police found this card reader in her bag. The amount wasn't much, but nonetheless a theft