Stewart's Shops Pauses Tap-to-Pay Option
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Stewart's Shops halted its tap-to-pay credit card services after the convenience store retailer discovered several instances of fraud at the chain's New York-based locations.
According to ABC News 10, the company first noticed the fraudulent activity starting on Oct. 19. Scammers apparently used fake card information to purchase cigarettes and alcohol, and though the card terminal would approve the transaction, no money was ever exchanged, according to a Stewart's representative.
Affected stores included locations in Greene, Ulster and Orange counties, but no customer information was in jeopardy. The state police are currently investigating the incidents.
Though tap-to-pay systems have been around since the 1990s, most countries only began to adapt to the method in the 2010s, with the U.S. market slower than others to switch over.
Tap-to-pay generally works by embedding a chip enabled with radio frequency identification in a credit card which is then read by a card terminal using near-field communication, requiring extremely close proximity to the reader to function.
According to Investopedia, this form of contactless payment generally offers a major advantage over traditional magnetic stripes, which are more vulnerable to scams like swipe readers and can be more easily duped. However, thieves may still be able to use their smartphones to clone chip card information if they're close enough to a customer, even if the cards themselves can't be duplicated.
Stewart's Shops stated the opening for this particular scam may have been due to a software bug, which the company is working to address. However, no timeline has yet been given as to when the tap-to-pay system will be back up and running.
Saratoga Springs-based Stewart's Shops operates c-stores across 31 counties across upstate New York and southern Vermont. The company was recently named one of America's Greatest Workplaces for Diversity 2024, presented by Newsweek.