Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Fraudsters target Apple Pay in credit card scams

Criminals using stolen credit card details are reportedly linking them to contactless payment systems such as Apple Pay, before spending thousands of dollars through them.

There have been cases before of thieves using a burner iPhone and Apple Pay to spend on stolen credit cards. But now a new report quotes one fraudster as describing Apple Pay as the "easiest way" to make money.

According to Vice, Apple Pay and other systems are discussed on Telegram channels typically used by criminals.

These fraudsters are reportedly now using a recently developed hacking tool. Bots automatically place phone calls to victims, who are then in some unspecified way manipulated into handing over their multi-factor authentication codes.

The bots are then used to link the stolen credit cards to contactless systems. This is the "easiest way to make profit using bot," an administrator for the Yahooze OTP bot posted on Telegram.



22 Comments

lkrupp 20 Years · 10521 comments

As always the weakest link in security is between the ears of the idiots who gladly hand over their credentials to anyone who calls them with an offer too good to be true. And there’s no patch for stupid.

7 Likes · 0 Dislikes
mike1 11 Years · 3444 comments


Bots automatically place phone calls to victims, who are then in some unspecified way manipulated into handing over their multi-factor authentication codes.



7 Likes · 0 Dislikes
MustSeeUHDTV 8 Years · 313 comments

lkrupp said:
As always the weakest link in security is between the ears of the idiots who gladly hand over their credentials to anyone who calls them with an offer too good to be true. And there’s no patch for stupid.

These automated scams are getting really sophisticated though. Here is one that ALMOST got me.

Caller ID displayed the name and phone number of my actual bank (which I googled).

Automated message in perfect English:
"We recently got a purchase request which we blocked the transaction. If you made this purchase, please press 1. If you didn't make this purchase press 2."

Then when you hit a number (which I selected #2):
"Thank you, please enter you ATM card number for verification"

It keep repeating the message to enter the card number. This is where I was like wait a minute and hung up. The automated call kept calling back every minute for the next hour.

 I called my bank to make sure there weren't any transactions attempts and they said no, so I notified them of the scam.

A week later, I get another call from a different bank (which I don't have) called me and had the same message (I let it go to voice mail).

5 Likes · 0 Dislikes
rivertrip 16 Years · 146 comments

lkrupp said:
As always the weakest link in security is between the ears of the idiots who gladly hand over their credentials to anyone who calls them with an offer too good to be true. And there’s no patch for stupid.
These automated scams are getting really sophisticated though. Here is one that ALMOST got me.

Caller ID displayed the name and phone number of my actual bank (which I googled).

Automated message in perfect English:
"We recently got a purchase request which we blocked the transaction. If you made this purchase, please press 1. If you didn't make this purchase press 2."

Then when you hit a number (which I selected #2):
"Thank you, please enter you ATM card number for verification"

It keep repeating the message to enter the card number. This is where I was like wait a minute and hung up. The automated call kept calling back every minute for the next hour.

 I called my bank to make sure there weren't any transactions attempts and they said no, so I notified them of the scam.

A week later, I get another call from a different bank (which I don't have) called me and had the same message (I let it go to voice mail).

I hope "perfect English" was sarcastic.

5 Likes · 0 Dislikes
MustSeeUHDTV 8 Years · 313 comments

rivertrip said:
I hope "perfect English" was sarcastic.

Okay, how about non-robotic sounding and no accent?

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes