I only do business on-line with businesses that will take a cheque or a postal money order. (If you ask, it is amazing how many will.)
I suppose it has something about being homeless for eleven years that no one would ever extend me credit; I bought my new car last year with a bank money order. (Car dealers will take money orders too if you arrange it in advance.)
If my wallet were hacked by a mugger, I only lose a few bucks. I cannot imagine the hassle of trying to get a million dollar fraudulent charge reversed.
Speaking of which, is there a way to donate to Daily Kos by mail with a cheque or money order?
(Full article at Wired on how the credit card hack works)
With banks in the USA under the gun to produce chip-and-pin credit cards by 2015, Newcastle University in the UK has uncovered a fatal flaw in Visa’s new cards.
As it turns out, if one does a transaction in the UK in foreign currency, one can withdraw up to $999,999.99 on the card with almost instant approval by your bank.
The EMV [chip and pin] system in the UK limits the maximum value for a contactless transaction to £20, requiring a PIN [personal identification number] for anything more than this.
But the researchers found that the system doesn’t recognize foreign currency transactions and therefore doesn’t require a PIN for these.
“This lends itself to multiple attackers across the world collecting small transactions of perhaps €200 at a time for a central rogue merchant who could be located anywhere in the world,” [researcher Martin] Emms notes. “This previously undocumented flaw around foreign currency, combined with the lack of POS [point-of-sale] terminal authentication and the ease of skimming contactless [RFID] credit cards, makes the system more vulnerable to high-value attacks.”
Visa laid down the requirement that US merchants must change to chip and pin technology by the end of 2015, or face liability for fraudulent credit card transactions.