Top Scams & Security Tips To Avoid Them:
If it seems too good to be true, that sexy him/her passes by and gets a little handsy before giving you the eye and walking on. Yup, you check to see if your phone, wallet/purse is still there and phew.
But what you haven’t realised is that you been “Bumped” with an RFID/NFC scanner used to catch details from your contactless bank cards.
Its a scam known as digital pickpocketing, eskimming or RFID skimming.
A scammer / hacker with a skimming device (this can be either a large device with a powerful antenna carried in a laptop or a purpose built smaller device / adapted mobile phone), would simply pass you in the street or casually and discretely bump into you in passing. Depending on the type of “contactless” cards you have, (credit / debit cards, “oyster” and other travel cards etc) these can all be read from a certain distance.
An example of how RFID skimming works:
How To Stay Secure:
Without getting technical, you should protect your contactless cards by keeping them in an RFID wallet. These small plastic sleeves are cheap (15 for around $5) and block the contactless card signal while its inside. Simply take your cards out when you need to use them.