With the arrival of credit and debit cards, equipped with chips for contactless ( contactless) payments, the first "technological" thieves also appeared, able to steal the data stored inside the chip to make many small simply purchase by approaching our wallet, purse or pocket and passing close enough to start the contactless connection. The thefts carried out with this technique are currently very few, since the limit for being able to pay contactless without a PIN is € 25: but many thieves are adopting new technologies with which they can make many purchases from € 25 in a few seconds until they come stopped. Precisely because of this danger, in this guide we will show you how to protect your credit card or debit card from thieves who use the contactless to steal and clone the data in our card.
Article Index
- How contactless payment works
- How "contactless" theft is carried out
- How to protect your contactless credit card
- Conclusions
How contactless payment works
Modern credit cards (but also debit and prepaid cards) have an RFID chip inside the plastic body, which is able to initiate payment simply by approaching the card in the appropriate area of the POS (we can identify this area of the POS by the presence of an icon with 4 waves).
By approaching the card at a distance of less than 10 centimeters, the communication between the chip and the reader will take place, which will authorize the payment of the transaction without the need to enter a PIN (up to a maximum of € 25).
How "contactless" theft is carried out
Unfortunately, this system is vulnerable to attacks by professional experts in the theft of credit cards: they can even just "brush" us by mistake during a walk and get close enough to our wallet or our card holder to steal the codes contained in the chip RFID and then proceed with cloning: an RFID tag will be created with our codes, which can be used to make purchases up to a maximum of € 25.
Obviously such a low sum "is not worth the game", so here are born more advanced systems that allow you to authorize more substantial payments with various tranches of € 25.
If the victim does not notice it immediately (or if the bank does not block repeated and suspect contactless payments), the damage can become really substantial for our pockets!
To protect ourselves we will have to use special aluminum protections, to which we can keep our contactless cards: even when approaching the chip it cannot be read if a metal barrier is placed between the card and the thief's reader.
How to protect your contactless credit card
Below we have collected the best products that can help us protect your contactless credit card from tech thieves. These are wallets reinforced with thin aluminum layers or anti-RFID card holders, which prevent contactless activation.
Protective RFID case
The simplest method to protect a contactless credit card is to insert it into a protective case, containing inside a thin layer of aluminum with which to stop any type of contactless connection.
The best products can be viewed in the following list:
- OPTEXX 5 RFID and NFC protective enclosures (€ 6)
- Aerb 16-Pack Credit Card RFID Blocker (9 €)
- RFID blocking, NFC tear-proof protective case (9 €)
- RFID / NFC blocking card Protection for contactless credit card (11 €)
To use them, simply insert the contactless credit card inside the cases or place the blocking cards in the same slot where the card is present, so as to block any type of theft from the card.
RFID protective wallet
If we want extended protection to our entire portfolio (especially if we have multiple contactless cards), we can rely on the new generation wallets, which integrate the aluminum sheets inside the covering skin, so as to block any type of RFID connection unauthorized.
The best wallets with integrated protection are available in the list below:
- flintronic wallet and card holder with RFID / NFC lock (12 €)
- Bifold leather wallet with RFID block (12 €)
- Men's Slim Small Wallet NUCCI DESIGN (13 €)
- Men's Slim Small Leather Wallet with RFID Protection (15 €)
These wallets are minimal and integrate the protection without having to fix the lock card or a protective case each time.
Manual solution
If we do not want to adopt one of the solutions proposed above but fear for our money, we can also protect our contactless credit cards in an "artisanal" way by obtaining an aluminum foil (such as those used in the kitchen to store food, called also tinfoil ) and proceeding with the cut.
To achieve the protection, place the contactless credit card on the aluminum foil, trace the outline of the paper on the foil with a pen or pencil and start cutting with a pair of scissors: when the cut is complete, insert the aluminum foil inside the slot of our wallet where the credit card will be placed. This method, albeit rudimentary and at risk of wrinkling, can protect the paper from any type of theft made with modern contactless techniques.
Conclusions
In this guide we have shown you the dangers we can run into when we use contactless credit cards and what we can do to protect ourselves adequately, using cases, wallets or simple aluminum sheets to prevent thieves from using the contactless to steal money from us.Always on the subject of security of our savings, we invite you to read our guide on the best safer online payment systems for shopping, so as to avoid scams that can make us lose a lot of money. If, on the other hand, we wish to obtain a new prepaid card, so that we can buy online without having to communicate your credit card or debit card data, we invite you to read our guide to the best prepaid cards to buy online without risk .
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