Author Topic: Personal security whilst hiking.  (Read 6285 times)

gunwharfman

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Personal security whilst hiking.
« on: 12:08:42, 16/01/18 »
I decided to take a small step which I hope will increase my hiking security, even a teensy weensy bit. I've been dubious about swipe debit cards for some time now, so I have now been to my bank, handed it back (cut in two) and they have now issued me with a debit card without the swipe facility. Last week an old lady that I know, who is in a residential home, had her card stolen and before anyone knew about it £1200 had been taken from her account.

I have also watched customers in supermarkets, so many people who just swipe without a care in the world, no checking as to what they spent, no receipt, no nothing! even at my local Tesco Express, the same thing, students do exactly the same thing, such trust in the system! Not me!

My bank member of staff told me that the majority of customers do not know that money has been taken out of their account, because they do not check until their statement arrives, or they do not check at all. As she said, we are a rainbow land of fraud, people are so casual with their cards, especially the people under 40-50 years of age.

Ridge

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #1 on: 12:22:02, 16/01/18 »
If you are talking about contactless payments then there is a max spend of £30 per transaction and your bank will have a limit on the number of transactions that you are allowed before you have to use the pin.

gunwharfman

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #2 on: 12:25:33, 16/01/18 »
I was told that the card can be used over and over again each banking day? Maybe my knowledge is wrong but never mind, I've never liked the idea of contactless cards anyway and am pleased to be rid of it.

Deolman

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #3 on: 12:28:47, 16/01/18 »
I had problems with my credit card last year when fraudulent transactions began to appear on my account.  I am very security conscious and check my account on a daily basis so was able to ring the bank straight away but they had already stopped the card because they had detected the 'unusual activity' The point is that this happened shortly after I had booked a number of B & B's in preparation for the C2C walk which I have planned for later this year.  Some of these requested my card details over the phone and I believe that this is where the security breach occurred. I have now ceased to provide my card details over the phone and offer to pay by cheque or BAC's transfer instead.

Mel

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #4 on: 12:38:41, 16/01/18 »
I was told that the card can be used over and over again each banking day? Maybe my knowledge is wrong but never mind, I've never liked the idea of contactless cards anyway and am pleased to be rid of it.


I've heard this as well.  I also asked for a replacement non-contactless card as I think it would be too easy for little scroats to walk past and swipe with a card reader or if your card gets lost the finder could use it if they were of that mindset.


jimbob

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #5 on: 13:48:13, 16/01/18 »
You can buy RFID secure sleeves,(cost pennies), they do work I've tested them. This stops the passing swipe which seeming was a problem in busy Railway Stations. As for using it in store , I always do, never ask for a receipt as I look at the screen to see what I'm paying for. They are maxed at £30 with only three transactions ( in my case) per day without use of pin. I also check my account regularly.

That is interesting regarding the telephone use though. I tend to use a booking service who have all my details (address etc) and pay them via PayPal (for added security.) Happy I do so now.

You can also get RFID sleeves for your passport which contains a lot of information about you in electronic format nowadays.
Too little, too late, too bad......

gunwharfman

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #6 on: 15:54:11, 16/01/18 »
I stopped paying by telephone some while ago. It suddenly struck me that I was handing over a sum of money to a complete stranger and then suddenly being surprised that my account could easily be cleaned out some months later and saying "How did that happen?" Or its like giving your wallet to a complete stranger.

Anyway, its done now and I'm content. Well, for the moment anyway.

Dyffryn Ardudwy

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #7 on: 16:16:34, 16/01/18 »
I never take my debit or bank cards out into the hills, or out for a long walk.
Unless your out on a real adventure, lasting several day's, when you may need access to your bank account, then its best to take a small amount of cash, or sufficient money to cover your needed expenditures.
You lose the cash, and it upsets you for a while, but you eventually get over it.
Lose your bank cards, ie wallet, full of all those important bit and pieces, and  without realising it, you can be down by a significant amount.

pauldawes

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #8 on: 16:27:07, 16/01/18 »
One of my friends spent a fair amount of his working life as a risk manager.


He keeps two cards, one with a low limit (about 500 quid) for internet and telephone purchases and second for PIN authorised withdrawals. In theory the second one never leaves his sight...never allow it to be taken away by a waiter in a restaurant, for example. Easier said than done in some restaurants abroad.

jimbob

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #9 on: 16:28:28, 16/01/18 »
When I did the Camino I was looking for a prepaid card in Euros, as I had been told they were easily available. I drew a blank then, yes they were available but at a cost. I ended up asking my bank if they could keep an eye on my card whilst I was in Europe and they said they like it when people warn them that their spending would change drastically like that. I also informed them that I would always use my PIN so not to accept anything from France/Spain without PIN. Forward booking was done through a booking agency on the web, and paid via PayPal.

Does anyone know of any cheap ( i.e. free) prepaid cards?
Too little, too late, too bad......

gunwharfman

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #10 on: 17:52:59, 16/01/18 »
A couple of our friends drove to Spain last year from Calais. They loaded lots of money onto a pre-paid card and was told they could use it on the motorway toll booths both in France and in Spain, they needed to get to Murcia. It work all the way through France and then, at the first toll in Spain, the toll machine gobbled up the card. They caused chaos, cars stacked up behind them, loads of people were honking their hooters and some drivers started shouting at them. A member of the toll booth staff came over who did not speak English and they do not speak Spanish, so at first he did not understand what they were talking about. They eventually got it back, over an hour later and have not dared to use one since.

Anyway, another snippit from my bank member of staff. He also asked why I wanted an ordinary debit card. I was happy to tell him I did not trust the security of contactless cards. He said it was very secure but on being pushed by me he did admit that someone could use the card 5 x £30 times in a day before it might be quried. I could see by his face that he was out of his depth and was basically guessing the answers to my questions. As an older person, to me it was just a bright young man who had complete faith in anything that was a gadget.

Also, this afternoon I took one of my clients for a Passport interview which was easy to do, except when it came to signing in to the building. Instead of using a piece of paper and a pen, the receptionist had been given a tablet with its on special security programme downloaded to it. It needed our names and my car registration number but she did not know how to work it. I quckly twigged it was an Ipad, well the keyboard was, so I showed her how to do it. The three of us were in hysterics, great fun.

roughyed

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #11 on: 13:31:47, 17/01/18 »


Does anyone know of any cheap ( i.e. free) prepaid cards?


I use FairFX, there is a small sign up fee.  From memory it was cheaper to sign up via money saving expert website.

jimbob

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #12 on: 17:29:31, 17/01/18 »
Thanks Roughyed, looks like offer has ceased but have book marked the site for further perusal when spine race is finished.
Too little, too late, too bad......

Oxenhoper

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #13 on: 23:19:44, 18/01/18 »
I'd have thought the sort of places one goes hiking would be among the safest of places to take a contactless card.  To extract money from your card, they have to get within about an inch of it and stay there for a couple of seconds.  In effect, they have to press against you in the place you keep your cards. It's pretty rare, in my experience, that a complete stranger gets (and stays) so close to you out on the fells. The danger is in crowded places such as airports or trains where people are pushing past each other. 

Furthermore, they would need good mobile phone coverage to make the transaction, as the banks have now introduced a zero floor limit for contactless transactions.  Out on the fells wouldn't be the obvious place to go to conduct a scam that required good coverage.

Oxenhoper was born in Burnley but had the sense to move somewhere nicer at the age of five days.

gunwharfman

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Re: Personal security whilst hiking.
« Reply #14 on: 08:43:35, 19/01/18 »
If by chance you meet the 'wrong kind of person/people' on a hike, maybe in a village, in or outside a pub, on a campsite, whilst waiting for a bus,coach, train or like me when I hitchhike the issue, as I see it, is your contactless card might, or could be taken from you. Its never happened to me but I accept there is always the chance it could happen?

From the time your contactless card goes missing, your money could be spent by someone else. They do not need your PIN number. The example I have at the moment is an old lady in a residential home who seems to have 'lost' £1200. It hasn't been proved yet but it looks possible that her card was 'borrowed' and the individual who took it then went on a spending spree. If the swipecard is the culprit then the person who had the card made up to 40 purchases with it, from one bank statement to the next. I will know more next Tuesday. It may turn out of course that the money came from her account via another route? All I do know is that the old lady never left the home at all.

I now have a non contactless card, I feel better about it but also realise that even my new card is not foolproof.

Why do you need 'good mobile coverage' for a contactless card? Also I've never heard of 'a zero floor limit for contactless tranactions', what do these words actually mean?

Since last week when we talked about this in the pub, I now know that including my wife and I, 5 other people have handed their contactless cards back to the bank.

 

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