Cannot the thief use a legitimate merchant device?

Posted by brunson stafford on March 12th, 2018

That begs the question, rather than the RFID thief by using a simple RFID reader, aren't they use the best merchant RFID transaction device? Yes, but you'd have to ignore a number of critical factors, including the previous assumption showing how close the thief will have to be to the cards. Remember, merchant readers are only great for a few centimeters. Let's assume that the thief will either be very near the victim's card or has the power to do a long read (maybe a specialized criminal device).

Product owner machines have identifying quantities. If the thief efficiently got the victim's cards to participate in a bogus transaction, the holder of the card would eventually survey the fraudulent transaction to their card vendor, who would be able to identify the merchant device involved. Not only anyone can buy and use a merchant device. They need to apply for one. Documents must be reviewed and signed, and the merchant has to have a current, trusted confirmed bank account involved, for conducting transactions.

Further, for related security reasons, RFID transactions are restricted to fairly small amounts, maybe to or so with regards to the credit cards network. The RFID felony would have to go through the expense of getting a legitimate service provider device (that costs money by itself) and source a valid bank-account that the credit card seller may easily reverse charges to. After committing simply a few rogue, cheap transactions, the thief would be shut down using that machine if not their entire merchant service.


RFID card criminal offenses either can't be done or very little of it can be done before the mastermind's crime pander was over. Let's not forget that the offender can buy regular MasterCard information to steal hundreds of dollars with considerably less risk over a longer time frame for a few bucks per cards. This is another reason why RFID credit greeting card crime is practically impossible, and even more, therefore, not very profitable for the chance. It's very improbable to be achieved even if it could be achieved.

Like it? Share it!


brunson stafford

About the Author

brunson stafford
Joined: January 29th, 2017
Articles Posted: 28

More by this author