‘Ghost tapping’ scam rises, targeting tap-to-pay feature on credit cards, phones

January 21, 2026 – Published on KTSM-TV El Paso, TX

A cybersecurity expert told KTSM that “ghost tapping” scams, which exploit the tap-to-pay feature on mobile phones and credit cards, increased dramatically over the past year.

Jean-Paul Bergeaux, federal chief technology officer for GuidePoint Security, explained that in ghost tap scams, scammers will target the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that mobile phones and credit cards employ to perform the “tap-to-pay” option at payment terminals.

“In these ghost tapping scams, they don’t have to obtain your credit card information. They just have to get close to you physically,” Bergeaux said. “So if they get close to a credit card with that chip and they have the right technology, in either case, they can tap and try to do a transaction.”

Bergeaux shared that fraud claims related to ghost tapping increased by 150 percent over the past year, and said that people are most vulnerable in crowded places like an airport or a mall.

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