How to Avoid Unauthorized Credit Card Payment.

Almost 60% of the world internet users, at one point in time or the other, have to use their credit card online or at Point of Sale (POS) to make payment(s) for goods or/and services purchased. Most of these people usually buy things or purchase things online through e-commerce websites while some will have to pay for services online such as subscribing for services that require payment to the provider of the service(s) e.g. DSTV subscription, Utility Bills Payment etc. In view of these, I will be showing you two reasons unauthorised payments are usually transacted without your knowledge and how to avoid it.

Firstly, from my research and experiences as a software and web developer, who will definitely have to work on integrating payment systems, through reliable payment gateways, into applications I develop per clients need, I have seen why people complain of a service provider or product seller deducting money from their account without their knowledge or authorisation. Here is the reason. For payment gateway like PayPal, when you see the “Subscribe Now” button on a website it usually has the effect of recurring payment. i.e. the same amount of money will be deducted subsequently at regular intervals determined by how the button was created. So always watch out for such recurring payments – check and re-check!!!

Secondly, the other reason is simply as a result of the fact that we can’t trust the POS service companies’ security scheme. Not the seller who uses POS to get payment from users but the Service Providers as one of their untrusted engineers, or any other worker, can get sensitive information about every card that has been used on POS machine. So always be careful of how often you use the POS machines and if you must use it then don’t delay to change your card pin.

I hope this few points will be found helpful!