Using mobile phones to buy goods opens the door to fraudsters, an expert has claimed.
Cutting-edge contactless payments pose a big threat to financial security, according to an expert.
The transactions, in which customers' mobile phones can be used to purchase goods in lieu of cash, could be worth £5.9 billion per year within three years, analysis from Juniper Research suggests. Around 52 million consumers worldwide are expected to regularly be using their phones for these 'tap and go' payments by then.
However, security analyst Greg Day at McAfee told Reuters that this payments system would offer fraudsters a major opportunity to get hold of consumers' personal financial details; this, he said, would be due to the comparatively small sums transacted through the new system being proving less noticeable for customers than big-ticket credit card fraud.
"It makes me quite nervous," he said. "It's to this type of contactless small payments arena that smart data criminals will turn: if they just take a fiver from everyone, rather than larger sums from fewer people, they'll still make a fortune. Little and often, instead of one big heist, will be their mantra."
Mr Day added: "The mobile space is fraudsters' biggest opportunity for the future, largely because many people still see their phone as a communication device, rather than something that they have to keep secure."
