An innovative product for contactless cards will help in the fight to stop payment data from being electronically skimmed by fraudsters - and could improve the reliability of contactless payments.
Card manufacturer Plastic Card Services (PCS), and technical solutions provider Voyager Blue have launched the Shield. The technology it contains can be incorporated into any plastic card scheme to sit in wallets and purses providing a protective barrier against data theft, unauthorised payments and card clash. Its release offers to combat the rise of fraud and accidental payments as contactless payments increase. A four-fold increase in losses between 2012 and 2013 was reported in the UK alone and this figure looks set to rise everywhere given that the Smart Payment Association estimates 450 million contactless (RFID) cards were issued across the world in 2013. “The rising use of RFID-enabled contactless cards, identity cards and biometric passports has led to a greater potential for identity theft and fraud by data skimming,” says Rob Nicholls (pictured), managing director at PCS.
“Our patented shield technology prevents this by blocking the signals used to read the data contained in the RFID chip technology which also helps to prevent card clash.” The technology can be incorporated into existing plastic card schemes, such as loyalty programmes, to offer added-value protection to the customer or can be bought on the high street in a ready-made plastic card format that slips into the wallet or passport, he adds. Alongside the increase in fraud, problems with card clash are also rising. If a traveller has multiple contactless cards in their wallet when tapping it on an RFID reader, for instance, they may find that they are denied entry through the barriers or are charged multiple times as the reader struggles to identify the correct card. A similar situation can occur in retail outlets, when a customer presents a wallet containing several contactless payment cards to a reader.
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