A seventy-year-old from Kavadarci found someone else's wallet. Instead of returning it, he took the payment card and used it four times. He obtained an unlawful gain of 3,729 denars.

In a second case, a 27-year-old from the Negotino area found a debit card on 7 September and completed three successful transactions. Damage: 3,645 denars.

The same article of the criminal code, different years of birth

The Kavadarci police department filed criminal complaints against both men on grounds of suspicion of committing the offence of "damage to and unauthorised access to computer systems".

The terminology sounds like a hacking attack. In fact it is two contactless cards, two hands, and a decision to walk past the payment terminal instead of the police station.

R.N. (70) used the card on 5 August, without the owner's permission or consent. A.T. (27) did the same a month later. Together - around 7,400 denars, a little over 120 euros.

What contactless payment changes

Ten years ago a lost card was a piece of plastic with a PIN nobody knew. Today it is a payment that goes through with nothing entered at all, up to a certain amount. That made the theft easier, but also consistently traceable - every transaction leaves a record with the exact terminal, time and amount.

That is why both cases end the same way. Not because of witnesses, but because the banking system remembers better than anyone standing at the till.

The two men now face criminal charges over sums of a little more than three and a half thousand denars each. The difference between returning a card you found and spending with it is not about the money. It is that the first one leaves no trace in a criminal record.