Some banks over here (Europe) now let you block mag-stripe credit card transactions. Actually sounds like a good way to prevent ATM fraud as long as you are not visiting the US.
The clerk asked me what I wanted and I said "5 iPods please". I would be suspicious if anyone asked for that many iDevices. When they realized they only had 3 iPods, I said I'd take those. When I went to check out, I asked them to break up the transactions into < $500 chunks so as to not cause additional oversight, they obliged.
This was the first time I had ever used a chip-enabled card. It was obvious to the cashier, I was fumbling around with the card and had to ask how to operate it. Finally, after I bought three iPods in two transactions with a card I had obviously never used before, with the merchandise in a bag in hand, they ask for the credit card and my ID to verify the name. Busted, I thought! But no, after explaining that I was buying the devices on behalf of my boss (with no proof of this) they let me go on my merry way. I was flabbergasted.
TLDR: If you have a stolen credit card and want to use it to buy expensive electronics to fence, go to the Electronics department at the West Lafayette Walmart. Chip and signature cards offer no improvement in security, even when faced with at least five big red flags that indicate fraud.
Furthermore, it's always been obvious that the chip'd cards provide no improvement for online fraud.
It's a PR move to hide the fact that the banks and creditors rely so heavily on transaction disputing to fend off fraud.
Yet, a company sends someone to buy a set of mainstream phones split on two transactions? Totally believable for a cashier and not as crazy as people's grocery orders have gotten while I was in line. ;)
If you swipe your card at a machine that supports chip it will be disabled until the next time you use the chip.
However, if the card reader doesn't support chip you can still swipe. Essentially all machines support chip now. Only vending machines / parking meters still use swipe.
Fun fact: They apparently aren't connected to anything, and transactions are processed later, so basically any valid card will go through regardless of funds etc.
The market for shoddy bacon baguette & gin fraud is presumably fairly limited.
I really wish I could find that video again. It was interesting.
Cards however have a special "service code" on the mag stripe/chip. Certain cards like the Monese debit card or debit cards for customers who are not allowed to go into overdraft can only be used for online transactions. So they wouldn't work in this case where the transaction is authorized offline.
Source: My experience with cards in Germany where the train company is processing credit cards the same way.
I assume that first word isn't what you meant, but I can't come up with any substitute. What was it supposed to be?