SnapScan payment gone badly wrong results in 'blame game' between providers
Wendy Knowler follows up on the case of a SnapScan user who had an amount X3 bigger than the purchase cost taken off his bank account.
QR code, SnapScan. Image: Pixabay
Bruce Whitfield talks digital payment systems with consumer ninja Wendy Knowler.
The mobile payment app SnapScan is used by thousands of businesses in South Africa and is meant to make our lives easier.
It has a reputation for being safe, but one consumer's recent experience had him questioning that.
Wendy Knowler relates the story of how Paul Harris ended up having R5,000 more than he'd paid for air show tickets using SnapScan, paid out of his bank account.
The tickets cost R2,120, but R7,190, went off to Nimble Credit Solutions, supposedly for a debt which was not his.
Since the purchase in March until pretty much now, 'it's been a blame game between Payfast and SnapScan'.
Harris told Knowler that Payfast denies all knowledge of the transaction, and says Nimble is not on its network.
"According to Snapscan, he said, simultaneous QR codes were generated by Payfast and Pay@, and this resulted in the funds being incorrectly paid from his Investec account to Nimble Credit Solutions."
Wendy Knowler, Consumer Journalist
SnapScan was introduced by Standard Bank as a scan-to-pay smartphone app back in 2013, and Knowler approached the Bank about this case.
Their response said the root cause of the issue had been identified, describing it as 'an anomaly' and 'an unfortunate, extremely low probability situation'.
"Despite the low level of probability associated with this issue reoccurring, the SnapScan development team is working on an update that will put additional validation measures in place to remove all probability of it reoccurring. These will be in place in the next few days."
Standard Bank
Harris says he's since received confirmation from Snapscan that he'll be repaid that R7,000.
WHAT CAN SNAPSCAN USERS DO?
SnapScan outlined additional steps users can take to ensure this never happens to them:
- Once a client scans a QR code, ensure that the correct business name and payment amount are stated on the App,before clicking on the Pay button. (Knowler note: Paul did this).
- For large transactions, a 3DS authorisation request will be pushed to the client's phone, by their bank, indicating the amount of the payment and the name of the business they are paying.
- It is good practice to check that the merchant's name is what you expect to see, and that the payment amount is the correct amount you wish to pay.
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