I never understood this any way but I recently came across a scammer that mentioned when they dump a card (steal the information from someone else’s debit card and put it onto a created debit card) and go to a store and the cashier asks them to do a chip that they’ll intentionally make it decline twice so they’ll have to swipe. That happens to me often with certain cards when I’m in stores. My question is, what is the difference in this context? Like how are they so different that swiping works better than the chip? I’ve seen this a lot also where chips don’t work for a lot of people. But what is the real difference (especially in this context)? Thanks.
In: Technology
The chip is a actually computer chip, its not very powerful, but it is powerful enough to make a secure code that is only good for 1 transaction. This changes each time, not sure the exact details, but it is basically not worth stealing this code.
The mag strip though, is just a number (I think the same number as printed on the card, not sure though) that never changes. Swiping the card basically pastes in the number. So THIS is the code the scammers target since this one is easier to use once stolen.
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