Mobile payments are gradually becoming generally and widely
accepted across many networks and organizations. Its nature,
accessibility and availability make it easier for people to familiarise
themselves with it quickly to work and serve their purposes. As the
world thrives towards a complete digital world, it is only fair and
understandable that some sectors would go ahead of proper
authorisation and process to use it.
Mobile payment generally is a system of regulated transactions that
takes place on the digital space through our mobile phones or
electronic media. It functions through a mobile wallet and with the
help near field communication (NFC) technology to the receiver’s
wallet. All of the processes involved in mobile payments is
contactless and uses contactless media to make payment and access
wallets.
This technology is continually becoming highly adopted by many
companies and businesses and the digital money payment economy
is growing. Some companies that support the mobile payment
technology are Apple and Google, through the use of their platforms
Apple Pay and Google Pay, respectively. People prefer to use this
method because of many reason that include;
a. payments are fast and only take seconds to perform.
b. Pretty much convenient and fully supports the idea of a
cashless system that gives more security to people concerning
their monies. Less cash on them means safeguarding their
money against the many risks and unforeseen happenings that
come with carrying cash around all the time, like robbery and
impulse spending.
c. They are a big step towards building the future of the digital
world.
The introduction and implementation of this technology has its
shared benefits as well as its security concerns. It is generally viewed
as being secure and the confidence of data privacy is high. However,
there are some concerns that question the confidentiality in the use
and adoption of these mobile payments and such are discussed
below;
A. Notable amongst the various security concerns that could arise
from the use mobile payments is risk of fraud. Many people
have fallen victim to this since the introduction of mobile
payments and it is still common to hear about cases of mobile
payment frauds. There are a number of ways this happens and
the most common one is impersonation. Fraudsters impersonate
legit businesses and trick their victims into making payments to
a designated wallet. Others too fall victim to the promises of a
win-win investment where they get double or more of
whatever they pay or transfer. A typical example is the case of
the now famous Nigerian scammer, popularly known as
Hushpappi, who scammed so many people in the US by tapping
into business emails and redirecting payments and transactions
to his network’s accounts. Although this started way before the
advent and acceptance of mobile payment systems, it became
easier for him through the general adoption of this technology.
B. Another concern is tax evasion. Users who use mobile payment
systems for their businesses and other transactions are at a
higher rate of committing tax evasion offences. If there are no
better systems to track the transactions and proper tax systems
to regulate them, tax evasion cannot be avoided and the
implications when it’s found out will be much greater.
C. In as much as it is widely accepted as safe and secure, since it
is on the digital space and technology, it can always be hacked,
slowed down or glitched. This can give rise to payment
conflicts. This is where debits can be made to a person’s
account but the receiver wallet will not be credited or there
will be a delay in crediting which can slow down business or
disturb customer-business relations.
D. Data theft has always been a thing with anything involving the
use and collection of data. The mobile payment systems work
with data collected by the service providers and encrypted to
send and receive money. However, there can always be
backdoor attacks and if these attacks are successful, the user’s
information is stolen and used for whatever purposes the
attackers want to use for.
E. Last but the least, human error can bring insecurities to the
system. If by chance, one leaves his or her phone unattended
to, it gives attackers the chance to phish for any information he
or she wants or even make transactions on their behalf.
References:
https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/mobile-payments
https://www.javatpoint.com/security-threat-to-e-commerce
