Expert tips to protect yourself from ‘tap and go’ scams

Crystal Orderson speaks to Richard Frost, Product Head at Armata

Listen to the interview in the audio below.

The ability to tap your card to pay can save a lot of time of energy.

Unfortunately, this applies to you and scammers.

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A new form of fraud sees criminals stealing thousands of rand from people by double-tapping their cards while they make a payment.

All the scammer needs is a credit card machine in their pocket, and to be close enough to the victim to tap their card.

The scammers can take as much as they want from the card as some cards do not have upper limits for this type of payment.

To protect yourself, Frost recommends using digital payments like Apple Pay and disabling the tap-and-go function on your card.

Your phone will only allow a single transaction to go through when you tap to pay and will automatically disable the tap function afterwards.

“I’ve been focusing on moving away the card-based system completely and utilizsng the phone. There are stronger controls in place.”

- Richard Frost, Product Head -  Armata

He says you should rather keep your card as a backup and only us it when inserting it into a machine and using your pin.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.