8 Essential Tips for How to Protect Your Contactless Card

With the evolution of POS terminals accepting payments via contactless technology, Canadian customers are now accustomed to instantaneous transactions and no longer entering their PIN code. The market has rapidly adopted contactless payment because it’s simple and it saves consumers valuable time at the checkout terminal. For business owners, it boosts efficiency in moving the queue. To enable the rise of the contactless card payment infrastructure, Visa introduced payWave technology, MasterCard patented Tap & Go, and Interac developed the popular Flash, all of which have seen surging growth that is only expected to continue. However, one drawback to the convenience of waving your card is the new potential for fraud. Contactless has opened up new avenues for criminals to discover ways to counterfeit and take advantage of the tapping method, with purchases that circumvent the need for a PIN. Fortunately there are ways to protect your contactless card when making purchases. In this article, MONEXgroup teaches you how to protect your contactless card and we offer other helpful tips for payment security.

Contactless cards use radio frequency RFID technology to transmit the cardholder’s account information to a POS terminal. By holding the contactless card just one to two inches away from the terminal, consumers can efficiently pay for their merchandise and be on their way.

According to the Smart Card Alliance Payments Council, the industry association states that contactless chipped cards are very secure. For instance, even if the customer taps their card twice, they will only be charged once, because encryption technology protects your card.

The New York Times contends contactless cards are significantly more secure than magnetic strip cards, and card issuers such as Visa and MasterCard say cardholders are protected against contactless payment fraud the same way as magnetic strip. Some issuers are able to identify which transactions were contactless based on the customer’s card statements, which may help in detecting fraudulent transactions.

Nevertheless, several reports have revealed security flaws with contactless cards. For example, two U.K. reporters found that in some extreme situations someone with a contactless card can have his/her credit card information read if there’s a NFC reader nearby. Therefore, consumers are encouraged to buy a wallet that blocks NFC technology, place multiple cards together in their wallet, or even insert a small piece of aluminum foil near the cards in a wallet to prevent thieves from stealing their card information.

There are several habits and strategies that consumers can adopt to protect their contactless card from potential fraud. Experts suggest the following ways to protect your contactless card:

Partnering with MONEXgroup, a leading Canadian POS terminal and merchant services provider, is the first step in supporting your customers’ contactless cards. We offer merchants a wide range of POS terminals, such as the classic in-store countertop POS terminal, the Clover Mini which has the Tap & Go feature and is an excellent selection for a brick-and-mortar store. The Clover Flex utilizes WiFi and LTE networks making it an ideal choice for restaurants, delivery service, or for those who work outside as a contractor.

MONEXgroup helps protect the security of contactless cards by only offering POS terminals that are fully PCI compliant. We provide our merchants with the latest PCI compliant technology whereby we can secure their success and help them focus on building and retaining relationships with their customers. Moreover, MONEXgroup maintains the highest level of PCI Compliance in Canada with the most stringent security standards in the industry. In terms of security measures, MONEXgroup offers the latest SHA-2 standard POS terminals with 256 bit SSL encryption as a mandatory upgrade for merchants who are utilizing the older SHA-1 standard (128 bit encryption) which is being phased out in 2017. Our contactless technologies verify the signature and eliminate the customers’ responsibility for Authentication. MONEXgroup strictly adheres to the regulations of PCI Compliance as all of our POS solutions include measures such as CVV2/CVC2, Duplicate card Checking, Last Four-Digit Entry and Password Protection of Key Functions.

MONEXgroup also employs Account Security Verification (AVS); which verifies the cardholder’s billing address with the card issuer. Card Security Verification occurs by looking at the credit card’s security value (non-embossed 3-4 digits code) and checks it against the issuer’s value on file. But it’s not all about the point of sale terminals – it is actually the outstanding level of service that separates MONEXgroup from other payment processing providers.