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Consumers fear contactless payments put their personal data at risk
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Consumers fear contactless payments put their personal data at risk

News Desk
News Desk
January 31st, 2023
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Results of research conducted by personal security company Vaultskin show more American consumers are becoming personally familiar with credit card and identity fraud.

The research, conducted in conjunction with market research agency Harris Interactive UK Ltd., discovered 32 percent of consumers have experienced credit card or identity fraud while 26 percent know a victim.

The study suggests fin-tech firms have some work to do to assure consumers their technologies are safe:

  • 80 percent feel their personal data is at risk;
  • 84 percent feel their money is not safe;
  • 85 percent fear the intrusion of Radio-Frequency Identification Technology skimming devices which are used to clone contactless cards.

While the fear of new technologies is high, many people want more of them. Forty percent of respondents say they own one or more contactless cards, the same percentage that believes they should be more readily available. Only 32 percent take steps (i.e. protective sleeves) to safeguard those cards, however. A greater percentage, 54 percent, view them as ‘too risky’.

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The consumer should have final say over whether or not they receive a contactless card, 62 percent believed.

“The results of our study clearly show that consumers are all too aware of the problem of credit card and identity fraud,” Vaultskin CEO Thomas Kaprov said. “The rise in the use of contactless payments, combined with the increasing availability of skimming devices readily available to purchase online, is a serious issue.

“In the same way as we’ve learnt not to leave our valuable on display in our home or car, consumers also need to protect themselves against fraudsters. We’d advise that consumers use a contactless payment protection device which jams RFID signals and blocks skimming devices from accessing personal data.”

The online survey of a nationally representative sample of American adults was conducted on Oct. 25. It was weighed to be representative of the population by age and gender.

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