Tag: digital payment solutions

Digital Wallets – Pay to Go

Setting Digital Wallet Tap Limits 

Digital wallets promised to end our reliance on cash but are they becoming easy pickings for fraudsters?

The pay-to-go experience is convenient, especially as institutions integrate the technology into their payment systems and banks launch card taps and virtual payment apps that allow purchases with a single tap. However, there’s an indisputable risk involved: losing your hard-earned money to cybercriminals. 

Let’s take a look at how cashless payments can be exploited by criminals and how you can set digital wallet tap limits to stay safe.

Don’t let fraudsters raid your digital wallet

South Africa continues to transition from a cash-based economy to one that uses contactless payment solutions. The great hope for this technology was that paying with a single tap would remove the need to carry cash and reduce the risk of losing cash to criminals.

Unfortunately, local criminals have been getting creative and finding ways to steal digital money as well as the paper variety.

A typical scenario resulting in fraud using services like Apple Pay is as follows: 

Waiting in line for your goods to be rung up by the cashier, you take out your phone and prepare your payment app for a single payment. You think you’ve done just that, but after you leave the shop, it turns out that you’ve paid for both your item and somebody else’s – and that person is already long gone.

Criminals are finding ingenious ways to trick customers into tapping twice, sometimes with the help of employees who are in on the scam. This is especially worrying because many banks set relatively high automatic limits on contactless payments – with R10 000 being fairly common. 

If criminals manage to gain access to your tap and go device, they could drain your account in an hour or less, and it’s even easier when you are using the card tap functionality.

How to use contactless payment services and lower your risk

  • Reduce your payment limits. Most customers will find that R 1000 to R2 000 per transaction should be sufficient to pay for small purchases.
  • Receive instant notifications and wait for them. Don’t leave the counter until you’ve received a notification of the amount that has been deducted.
  • Watch out for suspicious transactions. If you notice a payment that you didn’t make or multiple payments of the same amount, contact your bank immediately to stop your card.
  • Disable the tap functionality on your card. Certain banks allow customers to disable the card tap function which can then only be used when you insert it into the machine and enter a PIN.

A holistic approach to online security has become essential as criminals find new and creative ways to steal both money and data. Our range of secure cloud storage solutions will help keep your business information safely encrypted. Browse our range of packages to secure your valuable files today. 

Digital Payment Solutions in South Africa

Cash is no longer king, and neither is the average bank card, it seems. Nowadays, consumers want to choose a payment option that suits their preferences. While the world was largely all about serving the vendor or merchant’s financial conveniences in the past, now everything is changing, and the dreams of consumers are coming true! Digital payment solutions across a variety of platforms are now available, even in South Africa!

At some point during an online shopping experience or even at the local market you have perhaps seen payment options such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. If you’re an Apple user, the prospect of being able to pay for goods and purchases using your iPhone or Apple watch probably even excited you. No question, it is exciting. The world is advancing, and while it does, it’s giving us convenient ways to pay on the move.

As a security-conscious business owner or even in your personal capacity, you will now be questioning whether all of these new digital pay options cropping up (new to SA at least) are safe and secure. We take a look at each of the digital payment solutions currently available and coming soon to South Africa below.

apple pay

There’s been a lot of buzz about Apple Pay becoming available in South Africa very soon. Apple Pay has been live in other countries for some years now and allows users to make payments with their Apple Watch or iPhone using NFC technology. The iPhone or Apple watch must be linked to a supported bank account card. Apple Pay works by storing virtual representations of the user’s credit and debit cards compatible with the Apple Pay service.

  • Is apple pay safe?

According to Apple’s website, Apple Pay is safe and secure because your actual card numbers are not stored on the device. Instead, Apple Pay assigns you a unique Device Account Number that’s encrypted and held securely on your mobile phone in a secure area.

samsung pay

Samsung Pay is not new to South Africa; it’s been around in the country for a few years already and is widely accepted at many stores in SA.

To use it, you must link your bank card to the Samsung Pay app on your mobile phone. When in-store, open the app and select the card you wish to use. Authorise the payment with your fingerprint or pin code and then hold your mobile phone over the terminal. The amount will be drawn from the selected bank card account.

  • Is samsung pay safe?

Samsung advises that the Samsung Pay app creates a virtual card account number that doesn’t disclose your credit or debit card’s real details. Because your card information is never stored or used, the transaction is considered secure.

garmin pay

Garmin Pay contactless payment features aren’t new to South Africa. In fact, in 2018, the company announced that contactless payment features were live on various Pay-Enabled Garmin watches in SA. These features were made available to VISA cardholders who banked with FNB and RMB Private banks.

Users can make a payment via their Garmin watch by entering a password, selecting the correct card from the virtual wallet and then holding their watch near the card reader. What’s alluring about this payment system is that there’s no chance of physically cloning your card, and it’s hard for any opportunistic onlookers to see the password you type into the watch.

  • is garmin pay safe

According to Garmin’s website; Absolutely! Garmin claims to take security very seriously and therefore only use watch-specific card numbers and transaction pin codes with every purchase. Your actual card number is never stored on the Garmin watch, the company servers, or provided to merchants.

last word on digital payment solutions in South Africa

Whether you are new to these digital payment solutions or already familiar with how they work, it’s vitally important to ensure that the service you are using offers up-to-date security systems. It must also encrypt any data that it needs to provide you with the service. Data encryption is an essential feature to look out for, as without it, a digital payment solution is not up to scratch.