Tests had shown that a couple of smartphone apps using near field communication (NFC) technology could extract the private information of cardholders. Banking Card Reader and Cardtest, when opened on an NFC-enabled handset, can retrieve the credit card number, expiry date and some transaction details when placed near a contactless credit card, such as a Visa (PayWave), MasterCard (PayPass), American Express or JCB card.
The Hong Kong Information Technology Federation (HKITF) warned that information gathered by such apps could be used by scammers to make purchases on shopping websites with a lower level of security.
The scammers could also pretend to be staff from the credit card issuers. Since they have the information relating to the card, the cardholders would be vulnerable to being defrauded.
Police have yet to receive any reports of fraud related to NFC credit cards or the NFC smartphone apps. Nevertheless, they advised cardholders to store their credit cards properly and review their transaction records regularly.
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