Misleading adverts in CMC Magazine

Page 49 of the January 2018 edition of the Club Magazine contains a full page advert for Skim Guard, costing from £19.95 upwards, a device designed to protect people from 'RFID Card Skimming'. The article is full of scary sounding 'facts' which are actually completely baseless!

The website Techradar features an article on this subject in which they spoke to the UK Cards Association who confirmed that: 'there have been no reported incidents of this crime in the country.' 

Contactless cards are designed to only communicate their information over a range of approx 4 centimetres, so the idea of someone being any further away and getting the data is impossible, according to Giles Mason, Media Relations Manager for the UK Cards Association. 

A 'Which' report from 2015 confirmed that they had skimmed ten cards and carried out online transactions with them, but admitted the cards had physically been in touch with the reader and the only information they had managed to gain in the majority of cases was the same information which was visible on the front of the card, ie name, number and expiry date. 

Which? said that although the risks are low, it is possible, although someone would probably have to be very close to you to 'lift' your card details without you knowing.

This kind of advertising does its best to scare people with false and misleading information and I believe that, before accepting this type of advertising, the Club should investigate the claims to see if they are, in fact, baseless.