Online they make you provide information that is not written on it. With this you could easily copy a card and buy anything later on that day.
This thing should be outlawed
Dutch electronic payment (online or otherwise) always relies on "something you have" + "something you know" (which is secret and not shared with anyone ever). It's not airtight, but it's a lot safer than relying just on "something that can be stolen".
I'm still constantly appalled and amazed at US/international online payments relying on something as outdated and backwards as just a string of numbers and some other public information.
You actually increase the chances of fraud/loss/theft/errors with Coin.
It creates more problems than it solves (which is unfortunate, since it does have the "cool" factor going for it) That only goes so far.
So it sounds like if the name doesn't match, it won't work (you have to take a picture of the front).
Edit: And it's on the magnetic data, too.
Currently, one assumes you can take a picture of any card and store it for visual purposes. There's zero explanation of how they authenticate a physical card (photo) with the swipe data.
It's not obvious how to prevent that without affecting the UX.
The old method requires use of credit card blanks, a duplicating device, and the card itself doesn't look like the card when presented in person. In this case, as someone mentioned, Coin doesn't display the card #s on the front, so it's like a Card Not Present (CNP) transaction, but needs to be treated as if it was.
This doesn't bring anything new to the card skimming operation, but it simplifies, optimizes, and can in some ways facilitate it. They need some sort of ideally biometric authentication and/or a server that identifies when two Coin devices carry the same cards on it to avoid this sort of fraudulent use.
This device defeats all these human security measures by letting me use a startup bling device to try up to 8 cards at once without looking suspicious at all. "Declined? shit, my newfangled e-bling card must have messed up - try it again!" (while silently changing cards using the button). "No name on the card? Card isn't signed? You want my ID? But this is the hottest new toy! Promise it's fine!"
- Centralized location / evidence. A stash of blank cards and an ID printer have to go somewhere, and look suspicious to start with. The gear to skim cards and write them onto existing magstripe cards can be stored in a small space or on one's person and thrown away quickly; there's no centralized location. I believe hotel keycards are used because of their availiability. There was a sensationalized national news piece a few years ago about pimps giving women hotel keycards with credit cards written on them to buy gas with.
- Start-up cost. A couple thousand $$ in an ID printer is more than $0; that's what would divide street-level carders from professionals who probably wouldn't be passing overwritten cards at retail anyway.
I typically hand out a Google Voice # as a sort of DNS for phone calls so that I can change my device number at will.
Wouldn't this allow me to swap out credit cards in a pinch without having to carry new plastic? Or, as you suggest, if I lose my Coin do I have to get all new cards?