Secure Mobile Payments: Mobile Security Concerns and 7 Advantages of Mobile Payments

Do you want secure mobile payments?

By the time you are done reading, you will know if these mobile payment processing apps are secure:

• Venmo
• Google Pay
• Apple Pay

You also discover reasons to be insecure about mobile payments, how to counteract those concerns, and finally reasons you can rest assured about making secure mobile payments.

This post takes a point/counterpoint approach to the question of whether you have secure mobile payments when you shop with your phone apps.

Let’s dive in and really discover whether you have secure mobile payments when you pay with your phone.

Top Mobile Payment Security Issues You Should Look Out For And How To Solve Them

The mobile payment solution is changing how businesses operate. Nowadays, shoppers expect to pay for goods and services from anywhere. Businesses can benefit from the multiple contactless payment options by receiving money in their eCommerce merchant accounts from customers.

However, even with the ease of payments that mobile payments offer, you still need to ensure your information is secure from hackers. So which mobile payment security issues should you look out for, and how can you solve them?

Stolen phone

We use our mobile phones for literally everything nowadays. Every time you have to pay for something or download a mobile payment app, you must fill out personal details. All these are stored on your smartphone. So if you lose your device, the risk of someone accessing your banking information is very high.

Solution: There are different ways of protecting your phone. Nowadays, mobile phones come with advanced technology like a fingerprint scan or facial recognition, which you can activate on your phone if it is stolen. No one can access anything on the phone. Also, you can have two-factor authentication for accessing your mobile payment application.

Remember also to report immediately you lose your phone so that it can be locked remotely.

Phishing scams

Phishing scams have been there from way back, but as mobile security evolves, so do their techniques. They are also becoming better at it. The FBI reported that in 2020 alone, businesses lost money exceeding $4 billion, all attributed to internet crime and the leading one was phishing scams. Over 80% of organizations also claim that phishing scams are also targeting them.

Solution: To protect yourself against phishing scams, you need to be vigilant when browsing online. Beware of links you download from the internet. Ensure when downloading any apps, you are doing it from verified sources. If you get any suspicious emails or SMS with links, delete them immediately. 

Using public Wi-Fi

One of the most common mistakes people make is accessing their mobile apps using public Wi-Fi. Hackers use public Wi-Fi to access people’s data by side jacking. They usually create an access point that looks the same as the genuine website. Then they can access everything you do with your mobile phone.

Solution: If you have to use public Wi-Fi, access it using a trustworthy VPN. A virtual private network will mask your IP address and the websites you are visiting. It’s one of the most secure ways against hacking. A VPN works by encrypting your information and the websites you are browsing. Another solution is to pay via cryptocurrencies, {stablecoins like USDT}, the transactions in blockchain are very safe and it’s almost impossible to access your crypto wallet.

So even if you are accessing your mobile payment platform, even if someone is trying to spy on what you are doing, they wouldn’t get anything if you are using a VPN. Ensure you choose a genuine VPN. Don’t go for the free ones; those don’t come with all the features for protection.

Protecting yourself against these common mobile security risks is easy if you take care and are vigilant. Ensure you protect your phone using a password and report it when it is lost or stolen. Remember to download apps from verified vendors and avoid clicking on links sent to you by email or SMS. These could be phishing links. And lastly, avoid using public Wi-Fi and if you have to, use a good VPN.

Do you have secure mobile payments?

Up until now, this post shared why you need to worry about secure mobile payments and offered actionable strategies for solving those concerns.

However, the Arizona-based Let Joe Know news program explained despite consumers’ concerns over secure mobile payments, mobile payment security is a worry of the past.

Do you carry credit cards or use mobile payment apps?

How does mobile payment processing work?

With mobile payment processing, you link your credit card to the payment app.

With credit cards, you don’t need to pay fraud charges.

However, there are benefits of mobile payments:

• You don’t need to carry so many credit cards.
• With credit cards, you pay a fee, but the bank doesn’t.
• You can use Google Pay on iPhone or Android.
• Your financial information is not exposed during a transaction.
• Hackers need to get past facial recognition.
• Hackers need to get past fingerprint recognition.
• Hackers need to get past a pin.

If you’d like to see the news show offering reassurances about secure mobile payments, you will find it here.

Secure Mobile Payments FAQ

How secure are mobile payments?

Look at all the protections you implement to make your mobile payments secure: You use facial recognition, fingerprint recognition, and a pin just to name three safeguards. Hackers need to get past all of those protections.

Wrapping Up: Do You Have Secure Mobile Payments?

In closing, this post shared reasons you need to be concerned about making mobile payments, how to solve those concerns, and why you can rest easy about your secure mobile payments.

Readers, please share so consumers who want secure mobile payments read these actionable strategies and the peace of mind offered by the news commentator in the video.

I look forward to your views in the comment section. Do you worry about making secure mobile payments?

Related Reading

More information about mobile payment processing can be found in this Mostly Blogging article about how to send money internationally.

Author: Janice Wald and a Contributing Author

This post was contributed and made possible by the support of our readers.