Its a proximity reader, remember that!

Right then,

I awoke this morning to the news that the homeless are being given contactless payment machines on a trial. This news was quite a coincidence because last night at a dinner party I had to explain how contactless works and then actually proved a worrying point.

How the system works is in its name, contactless. You don't need to actually touch your card on a reader, be it in a shop, restaurant or in the tube. The reader actually scans for the proximity of a contactless card once the value of the transaction has been entered.

So, you don't need to slap your card on the reader anymore ok....holding your card about an inch above the reader is usually fine.

Now then, are some of you having light bulbs going on in the noggin department? This is quite a worrying situation and things could escalate rather quickly!

Some card readers proximity is quite large, sometimes up to 2 inches. Imagine if the proximity could be set to a lot greater distance like a foot for example. All someone would have to do with a mobile card reader is set a value for a ￡30 transaction and then just walk around bumping into people where their purse or wallet is. Imagine how much money could be taken on a single tube ride in rush hour.

People didn't believe me last night so I put my theory to the test. The reason why we were talking about this subject, is one of my mates recently started a mobile bike servicing business. He was rapped how he could now take payments easily on the road, contactless. I did agree, but warned about the capability for people stealing money using this unregulated technology, so we did an experiment. He set a value of a ￡30 transaction on his mobile reader and then I told him where my wallet was. He casually walked up to me and bumped my pocket with his reader and guess what...

'beep' 'transaction approved'

Whoever is in charge of the control of the manufacture of these readers should definitely take note, because to me, this could become a rather terrifying scenario moving forward.....Just a thought.