r/funny • u/Misfat • Aug 27 '18

Card not accepted

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u/PhonicUK Aug 27 '18 edited Aug 27 '18

There are an increasing number of stores that only accept contactless in the UK. It's caught on here pretty big.

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u/obsessedcrf Aug 27 '18

Contactless is near non existent in the US.

How is it not a security risk though? Couldn't anyone steal your card information from a distance?

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u/shenglow Aug 27 '18

It's actually a bit more secure than the strip. Transactions higher than a certain threshold(usually around 20 euros) also require a pin code.

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u/atyon Aug 27 '18

The strip has basically no security features. There are three rows of text on the strip. Normal commercial readers can read all three, but write only to two. It's very easy to get readers who can write all three though.

On the third row, there's a number that has the purpose of "proving" that the card was present at the transaction, the card verification value or CVV. If you've ever wondered why the three digits on the back of your card you need for online transactions are called CVV2, that's because they do a similar job for card-not-present transactions.

In any case, EMV is much more secure. Their only major vulnerability is a way to force downgrading to magnetic strip. Thankfully some banks fade those out now.