Nowadays, people might forget to carry their wallets, keys, or other important stuff everywhere they go, but they would never ever forget to carry their smartphones.
According to a study, 2.71 billion people own a smartphone today, which is more than 35% of the worldwide population.
But, despite such a high surge in smartphone usage, people are still reluctant to embrace mobile payment technologies, mainly due to security concerns.
For instance, mobile payment crimes have reached 71% in 2019, and according to experts, this percentage is only going to rise in the coming years.
This is one of the main reasons why the majority of smartphone owners are thinking twice before usingdigital wallet payment solutions.
In this article, I’m going to share 3 major security concerns that people have with mobile payments and suggest the best solutions to avoid them.
With that being said, let’s dive right in!
Though many experts around the world say that mobile payment methods are more secure than the debit or credit cards, mainly because of the encryption & tokenization used to mask the card details, people however still believe that paying with their smartphone could easily lead to fraud.
Here are the 3 major concerns people have with mobile payment methods.
Today’s smartphones contain a lot of personal information such as contact details, emails, bank details, and so on. And since these smartphones are little slippery objects that we humans tend to misplace or lose from time to time, it’s easy for a thief to steal it and misuse your smartphone data.
Today, most smartphone brands ensure to integrate built-in protections that can prevent a thief from using your mobile payments to rack up fraudulent charges.
In your smartphone, there is probably an option to activate the two-factor authentication, which is usually a PIN number combined with a fingerprint scan, or facial recognition method to keep the thief out of your smartphone.
So, what general people need to do is make sure they activate the two-factor authentication along with the “Find My Phone” feature, which allows a smartphone owner to locate his or her phone easily in case they lose it or gets stolen.
Though all the credit & debit card information that you enter in mobile payments wallet is stored securely using high encryption methods, there are still chances of hackers disguising it with a code or algorithm manipulation.
To put it simply, suppose you’re in a cafe and using their unsecured public access Wi-Fi network to save your mobile data. At such places, the Wi-Fi networks are easy to hack for cybercriminals since there aren’t many security constraints used.
Now, when access you these public Wi-Fi networks to use a mobile wallet payment system to pay for the purchases, there is a high risk of hackers spoofing your mobile wallet’s registration system to make you re-enter your card details.
As a result, cybercriminals get the required card details to commit fraud.
If you’re going to use your smartphone for making payments, make sure to load all your regular debit or credit card at home, using your own private Wi-Fi network.
In addition, avoid using public Wi-Fi networks as much as possible to prevent cybercriminals from spoofing your mobile wallet. In case you don’t have mobile data available and need to make payment using mobile wallets, make sure to use a VPN on your smartphone.
A VPN can help you protect from hackers trying to steal your personal information stored on your smartphone.
Technology, in general, has surely advanced, but so does the cybercriminals. Nowadays, it has become easier for hackers to create malware and infect computers, laptops, smartphones, and other devices and steal user’s passwords as well as other private information.
Malware infection basically occurs when a user clicks on an unknown, sketchy ad or opens a link sent by malicious cybercriminals. Though smartphones have better security than computers, but mobile malware is also becoming a growing, serious threat.
For example, there is a malware called fakedtoken, which is basically capable of overlaying mobile apps and specifically banking apps that prompt smartphone users to re-enter their bank or card details.
This is especially the case for Android devices, while iPhones are a little less vulnerable, thanks to Apple’s strict quality control standards for its App Store.
Although, Chinese mobile app developers did identify a malware that infected somewhere around 3500 iPhone apps. Therefore, I can’t really say that iPhones are completely immune to malware infection.
First things first! Avoid clicking on unknown or suspicious links that you see or receive in either email or text. Also, consider purchasing a smartphone anti-virus app as an extra safeguard.
Next, never ever access mobile payment services through browser in your smartphone, even if you own a highly secure smartphone. You see, the cybercriminals can easily create a fake version of the mobile payment service provider website and trick you into entering your bank and card details.
Therefore, avoid using browsers like Safari or Chrome for using mobile payment services in your smartphone at all costs. Either use the mobile app or pay cash to ensure that you don’t become a victim of fraud.
No payment method is entirely safe from theft, whether it’s cash, credit card, or mobile payment.
But, today’s mobile payment services or wallets offer much better and technologically advanced security than any other medium of payment method. No doubt, users must take certain security measures before using any mobile payment services or mobile wallets in their smartphones, but they are really way safer than using plastic cards.
In fact, Security Intelligence also agrees to the fact that mobile wallet app solutions are way more secure than general people think.
In the end, it’s all about being a little bit more conscious while making a purchase using smartphones so that your private bank details don’t get misused by fraudsters.
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