What happens in the 2 seconds after you tap your card
EMV chip cards: how the chip stops a copied payment
A thief can hide a small box on a card terminal. The box copies every card that goes in. A copy of the magnetic stripe pays like the real card. A copy of the chip data does not. What does the chip have that the copy lacks?
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1
A thief has hidden a small black box over the card slot of Rono's terminal. That evening, the terminal asks you to put your card in the slot, as terminals sometimes do. The box reads what your card tells the terminal: the card number, the expiry date and a short code made for this payment. It keeps a copy for the thief.
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2
With the black stripe on the back of a card, a copy like this is enough. The stripe says the same thing at every payment, so a thief can write it onto a blank card and pay with it. This trick has a name: skimming.
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