This Saturday, May 28, M6 is broadcasting the second issue of « Arnaques », its magazine devoted to the most formidable scams, presented by Julien Courbet. The former host of « Capital » has surrounded himself with several professionals made up of lawyers, specialists in computer crime, financial advisers or members of the judicial department of the gendarmerie to share valuable advice with viewers. The first report is devoted to the crooks who steal our bank account, in particular thanks to contactless. Rabbi des Bois, a hacker, explained a very simple technique for hacking into a credit card. This technique, disconcertingly easy, shocked Internet users.
You have a car ? Housing ? A bank account ? This Saturday evening, Julien Courbet and the journalists of « Arnaques » are interested precisely in these three themes in a new issue of the program broadcast on M6. The investigation begins in Saint-Quay-Portrieux, in Brittany. We discover Jean-Pierre and his wife going to the bakery. When it came time to pay, the retired couple refused to use contactless payment. A story happened to him that, every year, affects thousands of victims. A few weeks ago, Jean-Pierre had his credit card hacked: 284 euros were transferred to a website in Dakar, Senegal. The retiree’s bank then told him that he was the victim of a contactless scam. « They’re one step ahead of us pirates! » laments Jean-Pierre.
« I’m going to ask my bank! »
To explain how Jean-Pierre’s money ended up in Senegal, the show’s team called on Rabbi des Bois, a hacker. In reality, the maneuver is disconcertingly easy. Using a small box, the hacker can, thanks to contactless, retrieve information from a credit card (such as surname, first name or credit card number), all with a range of 10 to 15cm. The hacker even gave a demonstration in situ, by testing its device on members of the show’s team. By scanning all the credit cards coming to hand, a hacker can, at each pass, take between 20 and 50 euros on the cards in question… and that’s not all! Back on his computer, with his box, the hacker can access a more complete and detailed history of the cards that have been scanned: number of transactions, expiry date, country identifier… with all these coordinates, the hacker could buy anything he wants on the internet. Fortunately, the experts of the gendarmerie quickly explained that there was a very simple way to guard against this kind of scam: an anti-fraud case. This card holder literally blocks the card signal. Once the chip of his bank card is inside this case, it is therefore impossible to retrieve the information.
The show revealed important information: the bank must provide this case to its client. When sharing this more than useful information, Julien Courbet added: « I’m sorry, my banker friends, but you’re going to have a few requests tomorrow! »
Over the past year, credit card scams have increased by 86%. In France, they would represent the sum of 136 million euros. Obviously, many tweeters, shocked by this scam, will contact their bank!