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!
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