The Payment Source Blog

I’m always amazed at the number of new Fintech startups in the market, many of which are creating fantastic new experiences and services to help facilitate banking, payments, wealth management and others. And all of these seem to be targeting the same consumer - the tech savvy, mobile-enabled millennial. While this is all well and good, there is a darker side to this innovation - namely that it’s creating larger and larger gaps between this target group and many other Canadians who are not yet comfortable or capable of operating in this brave new world.

There’s a type of transaction that’s opening up the world of digital payments to an expanded set of consumers. The transaction isn’t new, but the terminology used to describe it definitely is. Specifically, I’m talking about a consumer going into a store to hand over funds to load an account, pay a bill or complete an online transaction. What’s unique about this is that all of these transactions are unrelated to the goods actually sold by that store.

In last week's blog, I talked about the different types of prepaid fraud. This week I will discuss how to identify the fraudsters behind these scams.

Over the past few years there has been a shift in the market when it comes to fraud. Five or more years ago, you saw messages everywhere about keeping your debit card safe, and to never give your banking or credit card information to anyone. But no one really focused on prepaid products. The fraudsters were too busy working on their next debit skimming plan or credit card scam. Then one day, we started receiving calls from our retailers asking why we didn’t cancel the prepaid voucher they printed like we said we would? We quickly realized that fraudsters have been calling our locations impersonating our support team and stealing PIN information from vouchers. That is when the shift began to take place from traditional debit and credit fraud to a focus on the prepaid world.

Travelling gives you the benefit of experiencing other cultures, meeting different people, and learning new things that you can take back with you. Everyone wants to be smarter, sharper, have that extra edge in their lives. What people do not realize is that travelling gives you the kind of smarts that a book can’t.