With technology nowadays, payments have become relatively easy to make. With a simple scan of your Visa Paywave enabled cards, payment information can be easily extracted and used to make payments of your purchases. That being said, your convenience comes at a price. Using the same technology, your cards can also be used by skimmers to retrieve sensitive information for their own malicious purposes.
Wireless pickpocketing is a serious problem globally and your cards are not spared as well. By using a similar RFID scanner you use for making your payments, skimmers can secretly communicate with your cards to extract the necessary information for THEIR next purchase using YOUR cards. All they have to do is to get close enough to you unknowingly and do a similar scan to trick your cards into thinking that you are making a payment.
This is why many users of wireless payment cards such as the Visa PayWave and Mastercard PayPass have employed the use of RFID Blockers to remove unauthorized access to their cards. By using signal blockers such as the scanner guard card or a complete isolation using the RFID Blocking card holder, users can prevent unauthorized personnel from secretly extracting payment information from their credit cards.
There's only so much your credit card companies can do to secure your cards electronically and prevent wireless theft. Hackers nowadays have the relevant skills that can easily bypass security protocols and electronic locks to reach their goals. To truly secure your cards from skimming, unauthorized access needs to be done on your side as well.
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