So, contactless card fraud hit £7 million (US$9 million or 8 million euros) in the U.K. in 2016, up from £153k in 2014. Cue click-bait headlines about fraud soaring by almost 4,500 percent. When you dig a bit deeper, this is both mischievous scaremongering and quite misleading.
Salacious spending spree
Firstly, the article explains how contactless card theft allows criminals to “go on a spending spree without knowing a PIN or any other card details.” In reality, any spending spree is limited to between one and three contactless transactions, under £30 (in the U.K.). After which the thief will be challenged to enter the card PIN, keeping contactless ‘spending sprees’ to a maximum of £90. Also, assuming you report the theft in a timely manner, your issuing bank will carry full liability for these fraudulent transactions and your money returned to you.
Data discrimination
On face value, a 4,500 percent increase in fraud sounds serious, however, without considering the rate of growth of contactless cards over the same period, the statistic is pretty meaningless. Google to the rescue…