Your credit card never leaves your pocket, but somehow, your money does.
It’s called Ghost Tapping. A proximity-based scam that uses the same tap-to-pay technology you see at legitimate businesses every day to steal from you.
Using cheap, easy-to-buy card readers, thieves can trigger small wireless transactions just by getting close enough to your wallet or phone. No swipe. No PIN. No warning.
The scam relies on proximity and crowded spaces like transit, concerts or busy sidewalks, where victims may never realize a charge is happening in real time.
“It’s a growing problem,” said Ben Spradling with the Better Business Bureau. “When you think about how convenient and how commonplace this payment is, it’s just a matter of time before somebody wants to take advantage of that.
Insights from cybersecurity firm, GuidePoint Security, show a 150% surge in ghost tap-related claims over the past year.
And because the transactions are often small, they can slip by unnoticed until it’s too late.
Monday at 5:30 on KIRO 7 – we are sharing ways to protect your physical and mobile wallet, and putting the most popular scam prevention devices to the test to see what works, and what is a waste of money.
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