Dang! And here I thought tapping was more secure than swiping. The article suggests using your phone to pay is a bigger risk for this. I don't use my phone, I have only used tap-to-pay @ big chain stores and gas stations, and I try not to do any financial stuff on my phone. So far, no probs, and I do check my accounts weekly at minimum.

The only place I use tap to pay is at Costco gas station, but this is good to know.

Yet another reason to pay cash...

My DH was talking with a clerk at Lowes about squirrels and bird feeders. Squirrels (and thieves) have the entire day to think about how to break in and steal. That’s what they do.

This is not new, and it's why RFID blocking sleeves are recommended for any card that can be tapped - The US CBP even sent an RFID blocking sleeve with my Nexus card when I first got it about 10 years ago. If you have a chip in your new passport, you should get an RFID blocking sleeve for that too.

Frankly, you could wrap all your cards in aluminum foil, but it looks kind of crazy, and isn't reusable. RFID blocking sleeves are cheap and easy to get - they're less than a buck each, and I replace them every 3 or 4 years as they get worn from going in and out of my wallet (or back pocket).

Of course, that doesn't mean you still shouldn't look at the amount before you tap.

I'm not convinced this is a risk. Most card issuers absorb losses from fraudulent charges. There are lots of ways fraudulent charges can be made, tap to pay is only one.

If anyone is looking for a takeaway/action item from this (questionable) piece, here's one guaranteed to be worth your time: call your card issuer and ask if you are responsible for fraudulent or unauthorized charges. Don't mention what method you're inquiring about, it shouldn't matter.

If the answer is No, then your card is safe to use no matter what happens. If it's Yes, in whole or in part, find another card issuer that doesn't charge cardholders for unauthorized charges.. There are plenty of them.

Some of the amounts mentioned in the videos are very large and I am sceptical that they really happened. I'm quite surprised they would have been accepted as contactless payment without verification. Currently, in the UK, contactless payments by card cannot exceed £100 without a PIN. Contactless by phone can exceed this amount but the phone's internal security settings provide protection by requiring verification before authorizing the payment. One's phone also does random checks whereby a PIN or fingerprint verification is required. The chocolate salesperson sounds like an urban myth to me

Petal, thanks for the alert. We only use tap to pay in actual stores. I also always ask for a receipt,, usually printed. I sometimes get extra discounts so I look for those.

I agree with Elmer in that I know my bank covers and has covered things like this.

Quite a few times Chase has alerted us about to suspicious activity.

Once more, a warning to not use debit cards for transactions. The money comes directly out of your bank account. With a credit card, you can dispute the charges but your bank account is not affected.

Usually the fraud calls are for large, suspicious charges though. I recently discovered someone was going through life paying with a card I lost. Little stuff like $20 at the gas station, $13 grub hub, etc. Took me a couple months to notice it and by that time they had racked up a couple thousand dollars.

Sushi, not true. I’ve had issues sith my debit card and Chase resolved them.

Food, I once received an alert from Chase for a very small amount. I was at a Barnes and Nobel and paid for my order. But then as a second thought got back online to buy a second small purchase. This seemed suspicious to Chase.

You need to be in the habit of looking over your statements.

Yes. The bank will refund fraudulent payments on a debit card providing you haven't been negligent, eg lending it to someone else.

" Most card issuers absorb losses from fraudulent charges. "

" If the answer is No, then your card is safe to use no matter what happens. "

That's still a problem, in the same way that underground economies of undeclared income are still a problem, even though they don't directly cost you money.

A quick search shows that picking up data from an RFID tap card could be done from over a foot away was the findings of some research in England in 2013 - as I said, this isn't a new issue. Because Europe has been using Tap-and-Pay for longer, the scams using that technology have been around there for longer. https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/criminals-remotely-ghost-tap-nfc-for-card-cash-out-attacks-a-26860

" That's still a problem, in the same way that underground economies of undeclared income are still a problem, even though they don't directly cost you money. "

How so or in what way? What you have in mind is not clear.

I don't think you can count on being refunded a fraudulent debit card charge because they are not as well protected in law as credit cards. I recently read of a woman who lost $500 to debit card fraud. She never uses one but the bank sends them out anyway. Somehow hers was stolen from the mail and she didn't notice because she wasn't watching for it to arrive. She got a notice that someone had changed her pin and she saw that $500 was taken from her account so called the bank. After much explaining they refused to refund it. She appealed to supervisor. No change. She filed a police report and tried again with the bank. She had proof she wasn't at a cash machine at the time of the transaction and tried to compel them to get security camera footage of the transaction, but they refused. She was STEAMED! She tried again, going over the heads of the previous decision makers and finally got it reversed. But imagine all the people who dont persist and just lose their money.

" I don't think you can count on being refunded a fraudulent debit card charge"

There's no need to wonder what might happen or to assume anything about these things. Contact your bank and ask. Mystery solved. If you don't like its policies, move your business to one whose practices you like better.

If you're in the dark and don't know - that's your fault.

My bank has always checked with me when they spot a suspicious transaction on my debit card. Usually it's bona fide but they still check. And they have always refunded promptly when something appears on my statement which I didn't buy. (Very, very rare). The minute I tap my phone the transaction appears on the screen and in the app so I always know what I've spent and where. Bank security is so tight now it's really quite difficult to make big payments. They'll take you through a long verification process before they release the funds. If you don't know if your bank does this check their website.

"foodonastump: Usually the fraud calls are for large, suspicious charges though. I recently discovered someone was going through life paying with a card I lost. Little stuff like $20 at the gas station, $13 grub hub, etc. Took me a couple months to notice it and by that time they had racked up a couple thousand dollars."

Losing a credit or debit card and (apparently) being unaware, and not paying attention to charges. That's astonishing to me!

I keep receipts (accumulation shredded by year unless any are needed for a longer-term reason) and enter every transaction into MS Money dating back more than 28 years. I check my accts daily to confirm when pending charges have cleared.

I get email or text notifications on charges. Also for my mother's ccard acct, which was very helpful when her card was caught by a skimmer at the local WM and a subsequent charge came through for a restaurant in a foreign country.

Decades ago I got a call about an atypical charge. Did I spend $$$ at XYZ Jewelers this morning?

DS and fiancee had chosen a diamond, and I'd given them a platinum setting into which the jeweler would set the stone, charges on me.

" I keep receipts........"

My suggestion to you - this isn't necessary. And wouldn't be considered a best practice. If something was charged to your account and shouldn't be, your bank has all the information about the charge that it needs.

Unless you have much more than a few charges each day, you should be able to keep rough amounts in your head, plus or minus within a range, to allow checking once or twice a month to be enough.

Why do you find it necessary to shred receipts? Few if any receipts have full account numbers on them. Nor, enough info to allow a ne'er do well to make an unauthorized charge.

Elmer - your response to dadoes post brought to my mind a recent discussion with my aunt. I think the reason dadoes keeps receipts, enters transactions into MS Money, checks accounts daily etc. is simply because that’s what s/he is accustomed to doing & is comfortable with that process. No other reason is needed.

My very recent discussion with my aunt came up because I was helping her with her new printer issue when she was trying to print her checking account statement. She had pulled up her statement via her online access to her checking account. I asked her why she was printing the statement since she could view it anytime she wanted to. Her reply - “I need it to balance my checking account.” She was as horrified to learn that I haven’t ”balanced” my checking account since the day I acquired online access to it as I was to learn that she’s actually balancing & reconciling her checking account. It was pretty funny. I learned that she enters every credit card charge into her check register to ensure she has the funds to pay the CC bill in full each month. Okay - I get that. She also monitors her CC charges on line to make sure they’re valid. She also has some monthly auto charges to her CC & so she’s checking her CC online to make sure the charges have been made. That segued into a discussion about setting alerts on her CC. I was quickly sorry I asked my intial question about printing of her bank statement. My aunt just celebrated her 87th, has zero cognition issues & had a career as an operations manager in a very large insurance company. She’s very detail oriented. She likes the way she manages her business and that’s all that’s important. As for me - I am a signer on her deposit accounts & I did set up alerts for myself. I’m familiar enough with her accounts that I’d recognize something wrong. My point, in case it got lost in the weeds here, is that we each have our own methods for managing our purses & wallets. Though some are faster or less time consuming, none are wrong. 😊

FWIW, I have all my CC accounts set to email me alerts for any and all transactions over $1.00, along with current balances. I go through my email daily and can quickly see if anything's amiss. I basically toggled a switch on each website to set that up.

@carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 I do the same except I get text alerts. I’m not as wired into email & I want to know immediately thus the text works best for me.

I do have one account that sends a text every Monday morning - usually @ 5am 😏

" My point, in case it got lost in the weeds here, is that we each have our own methods for managing our purses & wallets. Though some are faster or less time consuming, none are wrong. "

KW, I don't agree. If your reasoning were sensible, that would mean any way anyone does a task, whether it's right or wrong, necessary or unnecessary, required to product one's assets or a waste of time, all are justified SIMPLY BECAUSE that's how someone has always done it. There's no reason to ever learn anything new. To ask for information to understand how each of one's financial accounts and risks work.

I don't accept any of that.

Comments in this thread demonstrate quite well that many people don't understand what is and what isn't a risk with banking transactions. With credit card transactions. With their money handling and spending.

Why do you not "reconcile" your bank accounts at month end? Because you haven't found it to be necessary, it's a waste of time. So that my cards are face up on the table, I also haven't done that anytime I can remember, certainly not in the last 40 years. I never get receipts for purchases unlikely to be useful to return a purchase because they're not needed to have.

For me, long before online banking was available, it wasn't necessary for me to "keep track" of my spending and balances with so much work. I've had months, maybe years, of extra free time in my life because I haven't wasted it doing something completely unnecessary.

Had I had to keep close track of my spending, I would have done it with an approach that required little time. Probably by spending cash only and still not keeping receipts.

" KW, I don't agree. If your reasoning were sensible, that would mean any way anyone does a task, whether it's right or wrong, necessary or unnecessary, required to product one's assets or a waste of time, all are justified SIMPLY BECAUSE that's how someone has always done it.""

That's not what she said. She said those ways are justified JUST BECAUSE that's how someone is comfortable doing them. And she's right. It's not the history that makes it right or necessary, it's the personal comfort. You may think something is unnecessary, but if it's necessary to someone else for their personal comfort (so they can sleep well at night), then that's necessary to them.

Everyone doesn't have to live the way you think is best. It's not all about you.

"I never get receipts for purchases unlikely to be useful to return a purchase because they're not needed to have."

Depends on the store. I shop at some stores where they will not accept a return without a receipt. Not all stores will look up your credit card for the transaction on file electronically; many smaller stores I shop at won't. No receipt = no refund for some stores.

Elmer, while I don’t disagree with your view, I do agree more with TV’s interpretation of my ”reasoning”. Sensible and practical aren’t the same for everyone in all situations. I do agree that I also didn’t say or mean to imply - “There's no reason to ever learn anything new. ” Case in point, my 87 year old aunt, who uses what we both agree is an archaic & outmoded way to manage her checking account, also just downloaded an Uber app to her phone & took her first Uber ride. That’s huge IMO. She suddenly can’t drive so she needed a new way for transportation and she learned something new to accomplish that. I also didn’t mean to say ”all are justified SIMPLY BECAUSE that's how someone has always done it.” But, since you said it, my opinion is that sometimes a person’s process IS justified for them because that’s the way they’ve always done it. It has to do with context. Where is the person in their life, what are their skills and is there a strong reason to make a change?

As far as living by the principle of not doing unnecessary things in order to gain extra free time in one’s life - well, that’s something I can agree with too. My personal example, though maybe silly, was momentous for me and was a decision I made that shocked many. It was to stop putting up all the holiday decor. I know, it sounds really silly when stated. But anyone who does deck the halls knows how much time & effort it takes to haul out all those boxes, spread all those bits & pieces inside & out, then reverse the process a few weeks later. With my long workdays and commutes, I got zero pleasure out of that. It was added pressure and I dreaded it. I love to admire the lights everyone else puts out & that’s good enough for me. No kids in my household so no children were deprived of holiday practices. 😊

A side note I want to make on posted comments. TV, I do appreciate your comments about mine. You did make my intended point more clear. I will ask though as one friendly houzzer to another to please refrain from personal digs. Your last statement is that and it doesn’t add anything to discussion.

I think the acid test is this, an experience many but not all have had. Your kid is entering into a fully independent and adult existence. How to manage personal finances is a discussion that parents should have. Anyone who tells their kid that they need to request a message or email for every charge, that they need to get a receipt for every expenditure and keep them forever, has not given good advice. Nor is it good advice to suggest that any tasks of life should be undertaken without asking for advice or suggestions, or that it's rational to ignore suggestions of people with more experience.

I think some come from people with closed minded and sometimes self-righteous attitudes. I reject any notions of "this is the best way to do it, because it's how I do it". That doesn't reflect a well-reasoned decision.

Someone around here clearly believes that everyone who posts around here does so for no reason other than seeking their approval.

Sorry you think so, I don't. Are you open-minded enough to do some self-reflection to realize that you may needlessly be spending time on tasks that are unnecessary? Do you do them because it's important and valuable to do them or simply because "this is how I've always done it"?

I don’t disagree with your view on giving one’s child the benefit of one’s own life experience including in the arena of managing one’s financial life. My dad certainly did that. It’s a safe bet that his advice to me & my sibs differed from yours to your kids simply because he didn’t make his living in the financial sector and he’s from an older generation. I think that’s something that continues today. That is, parents give their kids advice that’s based on their personal experience and knowledge. The advice my dad gave me & also modeled in his own behavior, was to pay myself first and never buy anything I couldn’t afford to pay for with cash. That advice obviously reflects his generation and life experience. I did heed his advice and example in that I managed my income and spending well. I sought advice and educated myself to learn my personal risk tolerance before jumping in to investing. I also worked in credit - personal and commercial lending - and saw what happens with poor money management at all income levels. IMO, the lack of standardized & mandatory education on life skills aka money management in middle schools is one (of many) problems with our system of formal education.

I agree that your statement ”I reject any notions of "this is the best way to do it, because it's how I do it" isn’t a well reasoned decision. But, saying ‘this is the best way to do it because it works well for me AND doesn’t create issues for me‘ turns it into a well reasoned decision. Circling back to my aunt’s checkbook balancing process - it works for her and does no harm to her and has no effect on me. Would I advocate teaching a young person to do what she’s doing? Of course I wouldn’t!

" I sought advice and educated myself "

That's perfect! Contrast with "I started doing it thus and such a way and still do."

You comment brings up a related topic, with " parents give their kids advice that’s based on their personal experience and knowledge.". It's something I see sometimes with parenting advice, as well as those engaged in the ill-advised practice of home schooling.

Simply passing along what the parent knows is not enough. It's far from being a best practice. Isn't passing along well considered advice and best obtainable information received by looking for same and/or help from experts (books or consultations) a better idea? Don't kids deserve that?

I have a number of personal experiences I won't bore anyone here with, but I'll emphasize my belief that people who reject ideas of others and like to conjure up their own outlooks without outside information and counsel are fooling themselves.