A new breed of digital pickpocket has been discovered lurking in crowded areas such as shopping centres. They come armed with technology that can effortlessly steal credit and debit card details without needing to physically touch you or your wallet.

With these details at hand, criminals can then use your card details to purchase items. The purchaser may then try to obtain a refund for this purchase.

We strongly advise any retailers to refrain from accepting any payments from unvalidated sources via smartphones.

Here’s how it happens:

1. Technology in the card known as the NFC, transmits details via its own radio signal.
2. Criminals can download NFC apps to access bank details from standing just 6 inches away.
3. The phone can then be used as a method of payment using these details.

Currently, there over 100 million contactless credit cards currently in circulation, cards with the contactless payment symbol are susceptible to a stealthy attack, which is most new cards: It is now so easy to steal and use credit card information that someone can brush past a target and stealthily pickpocket their cards data without physically touching the person!

After the information is take from the card by the thief, it merely requires the user of NFCProxy to make a payment using a card’s stolen data a single time, and to do it before it’s used by the card’s legitimate owner.

We strongly advise any retailers to refrain from accepting any payments from unvalidated sources via smartphones.