Chip & PIN scam.... Or S***e?
Chip & PIN scam.... Or S***e?
Author
Discussion

erolb

Original Poster:

506 posts

216 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
Bought a phone from Curries in the Trafford Centre the other day. At the counter there was a sign saying "We will swipe your card for you". I asked the reason and the droid behind the counter said "Trafford Centre alerted us to a scam. Baddies have this thing they strap to the palm of their hand, they then insert a blank card in the card reader and the palm device brings up the details of the last card used to make a payment on the Chip & PIN machine and the bill is charged to that card".

Anyone heard of this?

elster

17,517 posts

239 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
Yes I have heard this. I laughed at the person on the till!

I don't believe it to be honest.

ian feltell

106 posts

236 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
that new to mescratchchin

fathomfive

11,220 posts

219 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
Did they actually say "Baddies"?

laugh

davido140

9,616 posts

255 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
more likely they will swipe your card for you so they can clone the details themselves.

Sounds like horse st to me

TheEnd

15,370 posts

217 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
rubbish, card readers don't work like that, they don't hold the info of the last card in them, and there isn't a secret code that will get them to contact the rest of the system, and ask them to relay the last stripe back to the card, or some pda that just senses what the till is thinking.

Call your credit card company, and tell them of this bloke, saying it sounds dodgy that they refuse to let you swipe a card and insist they get hold of it.


erolb

Original Poster:

506 posts

216 months

Saturday 13th December 2008
quotequote all
TheEnd said:
rubbish, card readers don't work like that, they don't hold the info of the last card in them, and there isn't a secret code that will get them to contact the rest of the system, and ask them to relay the last stripe back to the card, or some pda that just senses what the till is thinking.

Call your credit card company, and tell them of this bloke, saying it sounds dodgy that they refuse to let you swipe a card and insist they get hold of it.
Good point well made.

StevieS

197 posts

239 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
A PED which retained card information would never pass accreditation with any card acquirer. The only thing I can think of is that the PED may have been stolen and compromised i.e. the 'baddies' may have taken the PED, installed a data capture system, then took it back to the retailer and re-installed onto the till. However, this would likely have to have somebody on the inside to do this. PEDs are also usually very sensitive to any tampering. Even unplugging a PED from a till can cause them to terminally fail.

Pappa Lurve

3,827 posts

311 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
Yup, he was talking rubbish. Part of the point of Chip and PIN is that it theoreticaly alows a customer to retain control of the card at all times. I would agree with the suggestion that you mention his comments to your credit card company or perhaps, more helpfully, to the retailer themselves.

AUDIHenry

2,201 posts

216 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
BS. One of two things:

1) They want to make a copy of your card.
2) They want to keep others from using copied cards (so they can look at the authorized number and compare to the physical numbers on the card).

Edward9000

168 posts

214 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
How bout the one where some other baddies put card readers over top of the card slots on petrol pumps.

Nickyboy

6,824 posts

263 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
The only current scam with chip and pin machines is scammers somehow getting micro sized card readers inside the slot the card goes in. Tesco were hit by it in Bicester a few months back, i was delivering cashmaster scales to all the stores and asked why and was told they have to weigh the machines 6 times a day to see if anything has been added to them.

Somewhatfoolish

5,078 posts

215 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
I've been in McDonalds many times.

More specifically, I've been in McDonalds a few times where they ask customers to collect bottle tops for some spastic somewhere... a pile of bullst it is... been on snopes for a decade or so.

Retarded local shops are probably less suscpeitble to these claims than retard managers running franchises - any idiot can run a franchise, takes a bit more skill to run an independent.

Waht I'm saying is ignore it.

fk I'm drunk.









That said: I don't see why it is necessarily false, unless anyone here knows the tech specs of how chip and pin readers work...

funwithrevs

594 posts

224 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
Ex pinpad designer here, and that sounds like nonsense to me.

A pinpad will wipe all details of the transaction at the earliest possible opportunity. Even the worst ones do that.

There is no doubt a small grain of truth in there somewhere, but I suspect someone has got completely the wrong end of the stick.

jessica

6,321 posts

281 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
Chip and pin so secure...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think not.

JakesterUK

869 posts

228 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
Somewhatfoolish said:
I've been in McDonalds many times.

More specifically, I've been in McDonalds a few times where they ask customers to collect bottle tops for some spastic somewhere... a pile of bullst it is... been on snopes for a decade or so.

Retarded local shops are probably less suscpeitble to these claims than retard managers running franchises - any idiot can run a franchise, takes a bit more skill to run an independent.

Waht I'm saying is ignore it.


?????
fk I'm drunk.









That said: I don't see why it is necessarily false, unless anyone here knows the tech specs of how chip and pin readers work...

King Herald

23,501 posts

245 months

Sunday 14th December 2008
quotequote all
erolb said:
Bought a phone from Curries in the Trafford Centre the other day. At the counter there was a sign saying "We will swipe your card for you". I asked the reason and the droid behind the counter said "Trafford Centre alerted us to a scam. Baddies have this thing they strap to the palm of their hand, they then insert a blank card in the card reader and the palm device brings up the details of the last card used to make a payment on the Chip & PIN machine and the bill is charged to that card".

Anyone heard of this?
So, he was basically accusing you of being a baddie and attempting to 'scam' the card reader?


erolb

Original Poster:

506 posts

216 months

Monday 15th December 2008
quotequote all
King Herald said:
erolb said:
Bought a phone from Curries in the Trafford Centre the other day. At the counter there was a sign saying "We will swipe your card for you". I asked the reason and the droid behind the counter said "Trafford Centre alerted us to a scam. Baddies have this thing they strap to the palm of their hand, they then insert a blank card in the card reader and the palm device brings up the details of the last card used to make a payment on the Chip & PIN machine and the bill is charged to that card".

Anyone heard of this?
So, he was basically accusing you of being a baddie and attempting to 'scam' the card reader?
Essentially, yes. Well, Curries were as there was a professionally printed sign on the counter.

I also like how a number of people on here have opted to use the term "baddies". Well done All!

Nolar Dog

8,786 posts

224 months

Monday 15th December 2008
quotequote all
My girlfriend works in The Trafford Centre and she hasn't heard of any stors "being alerted to a scam" so I don't know why Curries have this sign.

Seems very odd and I very much doubt that a large national chain of retailers would try to scam you so blatantly.

SystemParanoia

14,343 posts

227 months

Monday 15th December 2008
quotequote all
isnt it the wireless chip+pin machines that "can" be suceptable to getting its information relayed to a remote location?

im sure it was on the real hustle