Contactless fraud

TadleyBaggie

Got caught with this recently. I bought two drinks (roughly £7) at a golf club bar. I asked to pay by card and so the girl bought out the card machine, keyed in an amount. I handed her the card assuming she would put in the machine and hand it to me to enter my pin, but instead she just did a contactless swipe and handed the card back. At no point did I see the screen.

Today checking my online banking I see I was charged £19.99, an amount obviously chosen to ensure no authorisation would be needed. I suspect the girl behind the bar pocketed the difference.

I have no absolute proof, although I was with someone else who will probably remember the events. I have complained to the golf club in question. For £12 I can't be bothered to go down the official fraud reported route.

Moral of the story, never do a contactless swipe if you can't see the screen. I wish I had used Apple Pay now, as the amount would have appeared on my phone screen almost instantly and I would have caught it at the time.

Super_Whiskey

Did you not get a receipt? Usually most places I've been will ask you if using the contactless is alright if your card has it.

Vortigern

Super_Whiskey wrote: »

Did you not get a receipt? Usually most places I've been will ask you if using the contactless is alright if your card has it.

I wouldn't expect a fraudster to offer a receipt, or to ask if contactless is alright. It would be interesting to see the fraudster's reaction when the cardholder asks for a receipt, although I expect they'd come up with some excuse like "Sorry, the machine's out of paper"

TadleyBaggie

No receipt was offered, which isn't unusual. Almost never get one when I use contactless in Costa.

PrettyFlower90

Contactless doesn't automatically give receipts, its to try and make it a faster service as thats the whole point of it. But this is the reason why I don't like it. I want my receipts and need them in cases and hate having to ask for one as it seems the customer assistants hate having to press another button to give you one..

Ballard

If I haven't seen the amount on the screen I always ask for a receipt if one isn't offered it's never been a problem.

TadleyBaggie

Well that was embarrassing...the golf club got back to me and said they didn't recognise the transaction name (it was the name of a golf pro). I then checked Google and it turns out he is a pro at a different golf club and I did indeed spend £19.99 there!

Needless to say a full apology was made. However this has made me think about the possibility of low-level fraud being done this way and I will always make sure I see the amount that has been keyed before swiping the card.

System

Wish my card didn't have contactless

PrettyFlower90

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

Wish my card didn't have contactless

Yeh I wish that too, wish it was optional coz I would never opt for it, and everytime I pay with card I stick it in the machine before they ask me if I want to pay by contactless lol

colsten

PrettyFlower90 wrote: »

I want my receipts and need them in cases and hate having to ask for one as it seems the customer assistants hate having to press another button to give you one..

WOW, lots of hate going on there.

Super_Whiskey

That's good to hear! It sounds like something of a learning experience!


Fraud via contactless is a lot lower than normal card fraud however most banks do give you the option to have a non-contactless card: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-3214113/Customers-request-not-contactless-debit-card-major-banks-say-one-just-1-200-millions-have.html