KWES NewsWest 9 / Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, TX: newswest9.com |
Various tips have been given on how to stay safe from various types of card skimmers.
An expert said the best way to stay safe could be in Chip Cards.
Business owner Tobin Routh has been working with credit cards for about 20 years.
“Technology is good. Is it unbreakable? Absolutely not,” said Routh.
Routh said the chip on these EMV cards has a unique code. Every time it is swiped by a merchant with chip reading technology, it will not accept the payment unless you plug the card in.
“Now if you’re a merchant who does not have chip technology that card will run because it can’t tell the chip to turn on and take me as a chip,” said Routh.
Routh said in October of 2015 merchants became liable for the transactions if someone pays with a duplicated or stolen card. This is why more merchants are making the move towards buying the technology to be able to pay with a chip card.
The best thing about these chips is they cannot be duplicated.
“If you swipe whether it’s a brand new card that has not been forged, stolen or duplicated and you try to swipe that card the machine will tell you, ‘Don’t swipe me, plug me in, I’m a chip,’” said Routh.
There’s good news for those who use phone applications to pay.
“It’s one of the most secure transactions you can get. You have to be very, very close to a machine in order for it to work and with Apple Pay or Samsung Pay it’s generally a thumbprint driven transaction,” said Routh.
Routh said these Chip Cards have been around for about 15 years but it’s taken so long to adapt the new technology because it is expensive. He expects all banks in the Permian Basin to be upgraded by the end of 2016.