A method for detecting fraudulent payment activity comprises designating one or more objects as typically being in a proximity of a payment mechanism when the payment mechanism is used in a payment transaction, verifying, when attempting to use the payment mechanism for a given payment transaction, whether the designated one or more objects are in the proximity of the payment mechanism, wherein the verifying is based on an electronic communication from at least one of the payment mechanism and the designated one or more objects, establishing whether a threshold number of the designated one or more objects are in the proximity of the payment mechanism, permitting processing of the given payment transaction if the threshold number of the designated one or more objects are in the proximity of the payment mechanism, and preventing processing of the given payment transaction if less than the threshold number of the designated one or more objects are in the proximity of the payment mechanism.