Warnings over tap-and-go thieves

Police and banks concerned stolen cash cards being used by thieves to make contactless transactions

payment method is also known as tap-and-go and negates the need to enter a PIN or sign a receipt.

The tradesman was notified soon after the theft by his bank after its card control centre staff noted strange activity and placed an immediate stop on his card. Counties Manukau police are investigating the theft.

National manager of criminal investigations, Detective Superintendent Rod Drew, said there were no specific statistics on contactless card thefts. “As with other electronic facilities, people need to carefully look after their cards and immediately report any loss to the card provider. Early reporting to service providers is essential, as there is no need for password or identification with this system, so it can continue to be operated until cancelled,” he said.

An ASB spokeswoman said reports of stolen paywave cards had remained steady over the past six months. “Wallets in unattended vehicles continue to be one of the main scenarios for credit card theft. As a result, we continue to stress to our customers the importance of not leaving cards somewhere that they could be removed without being noticed. The main places we see the PayWave function being exploited are service stations and fast food outlets.”

ASB’s “Card Control” function allows customers to turn off paywave transactions, lock cards if they go missing and set spending limits.

ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick said: “We can’t release specific numbers but . . . relative to the number of contactless cards in circulation the number of contactless fraud cases we’re seeing is tiny — less than most other types of card fraud.

“The number of fraud attempts has increased, over time, but that’s possibly because there are more cards in circulation and more transactions. The numbers are still tiny.”

Mr Herrick said ANZ customers hit by fraud would be fully reimbursed “provided they haven’t contributed to the loss in any way and notify us that the card has been compromised within a reasonable time”.

Kiwibank spokesman Bruce Thompson said the bank’s financial security team had recorded a “very limited number of cases”.

“We also have monitoring rules in place that would alert us to suspicious activity/transactions as a further preventive measure against card fraud for our customers,” he said.

A Westpac spokeswoman said no reports of contactless card fraud had been recorded.