This post may seem familiar to regular readers.  Current events, however,  bring it to mind again and the topic seems to be worth repeating.  The news has been rife with stories of major media outlets hacking the Smartphones of private citizens and government officials alike.  The objective of this hacking was news – voicemails from crime victims, and information on important government representatives.  There have even been stories of journalists hacking into the phones of victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  This begs at least one question.  (Actually, it begs many, many questions, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll stick with one.)  How safe is your Smartphone?

The answer to the first question relies on the individual.  Many smartphone users, while marveling at all of the functionality at their fingertips, forget that it’s actually a miniature computer.  Email, web-browsing, cameras, social networking sites all contain personal information. On our home and work computers we install anti-virus protection, firewalls, and similar protective software.  These types of protections are available for Smartphones, but many users are either unaware or unconcerned about the dangers of Smartphone hacking.

There are some simple things that users can do to help protect themselves and their data.

1)      Be careful when downloading third party applications – the majority of applications are not malicious in nature.  However, at least one major application marketplace did experience an “infestation” of infected applications.  Be sure that you know and trust the developer of the application.

2)      Know how your data is being shared – some free applications sustain themselves by sharing or selling data to partners.  Most applications will disclose this in their terms and conditions.  While it is tempting to just hit “agree” in order to get to the application, users should take the time to read their privacy and data sharing portions of those agreements.

3)      Native Security Features -   Most Smartphones have some security features built-in.  For example, entering a code to unlock the screen helps in the event that the phone is lost or stolen.  Some have the ability to erase all data on the phone if the code is entered incorrectly too many times.

4)      Security Software – many companies are now offering security suites for Smartphones that are very similar to the software available for PCs and Macs.  Top Ten Review has put together a comparison of security software for Smartphones.

Dr. Heather Mark, Ph.D.;  SVP Market Strategy

Today is a day of instant messages, real-time feedback and immediate gratification.  While there are a number of ways to complete a purchase online, the most prevalent (and probably easiest) way to checkout is via credit card.

 A few people may still send a check or money order.  Others may use a third-party payment account, real-time bank transfer, or store credit option.  Ultimately, online shoppers typically want to pay for their purchase quickly, receive an order confirmation, and not deal with getting redirected or working through a third-party process.

 Many consumers realize that if their card information is misused or stolen, they will typically have a very low threshold of liability for those fraudulent transactions, encouraging them further to use their card rather than a third-party method.

 If a buyer must be directed to a new website where they’ll enter sensitive bank or card information to complete their purchase, one can easily see how this could reduce the level of trust for the transaction and increase the rate of shopping cart abandonment.  While alternative payment providers have an important place in online transactions—especially when the buyer or seller is unknown—being able to simply pay by card and be done has a lot of power.

 There are a number of marketplaces online where individuals or businesses can sell their wares.  However, many of those venues lack a coherent or consistent way for sellers to accept payment.   Without a unifying process, buyers may not as easily trust that their purchase is safe. 

 To attract customers, improve trust and bolster their legitimacy, online marketplaces and sellers can offer a seamless, straightforward option for buyers to pay by credit or debit card and complete the purchase.  Sellers and the marketplaces can use new technologies like data tokenization to reduce their own liabilities, safeguard the customers’ payment information, and maintain a high level of trust.

Often times working with a website you aren’t familiar with can be difficult to understand. We at ProPay have tried to make our website as user friendly as possible. One way we try to do this is by providing FAQ and tutorial pages which give detailed explanations of the main features of your ProPay account. This article focuses on how you can transfer the funds in your ProPay account to a personal checking or savings account. To see the tutorial on how this works, please visit the link below:

http://www.propay.com/propay-support/tutorials/tutorial-transfer-funds/

Each time you transfer your funds, please remember that it typically takes 2-4 business days for the funds to post to your account, and a small fee is taken for this transfer (amount may vary depending on your ProPay account type). Please be sure that you verify the funds have arrived in your personal account before you attempt to spend against them.

ProPay is constantly striving to meet all of your financial needs in order for your business to be successful. For additional explanations of how your ProPay account works (how to process a card, how to reset your password, how to send an email invoice to a customer), please visit our tutorial page (http://www.propay.com/propay-support/tutorials/). Or, to get answers to some our most common questions by visiting our FAQ page (http://www.propay.com/propay-support/frequently-asked-questions/).

Kyle Hunt; Customer Service Supervisor

Target marketing, as defined by Wikipedia, is the group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts to and ultimately sale merchandise. Effectively targeting the correct market for a company’s upcoming or current product generally will not only help increase sales, but will increase the number of potential customers communicating with each other about the product.  Creating the correct target market takes resources from most departments, but how does a company choose which market is best for their product line and how to effectively drive the marketplace?

Recently, I have been involved in research around ProPay’s Social M-Payments platform ProPayLink (recently known as Zumogo).  The company needed to define its target market for the new, upcoming product.  What were the components we needed to search out? ProPayLink is an application for Smartphone users; therefore we needed to research who used Smartphones, the average income for Smartphone users, what type of Smartphones these consumers used, etc.  Compiling this information helped in the decision factor for the target market and therefore we were able to create the marketing strategy for ProPayLink.

Once the target market has been decided, the next step is to effectively drive it to the marketplace. I have become a big fan of a few select initiatives to take the product to consumers; let me share them with you:

Create a social atmosphere. Social media has become integral in the buzz about any new product offering.  Create multiple channels of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Blogger); update regularly and respond to any questions/concerns in a timely fashion.  “By monitoring online conversations about your brand, industry, product or related services, you can strengthen product development, customer service and a variety of other core business functions,” (Defining Social Media Engagement, Mashable.com).

Beta launches work wonders. Your product was made for success; place the product out in the field and test how the marketplace takes to it.  This is the best environment to create positive feedback to take back to developers, marketers, product development, etc. and change/update what consumers are looking for.

Continually update. A product is never finished. It needs to be continually updated and refreshed to keep your target market interested.

Creating the most effective target market for your business’s products can and will be time consuming, but eventually bring consumers to the table. ProPay continually enhances its products for our merchants and offers them a variety of devices to allow their customers to pay.

Find us and Like us!

Facebook: ProPay and Zumogo

Twitter: @propay @zumogoapp

Know Your Customer describes the process by which ProPay checks the identity and background of its potential merchants. This process, known as KYC, requires that ProPay validate the identity of a customer at sign up and to keep a record of that information for as long as there is a relationship with that customer. Regulations also require ProPay to maintain up-to-date records of a customer so that changes in the customer’s activity can be assessed and reviewed. The main goal of this process is to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes.

ProPay does not want to make the wrong decisions when looking at any type of customer, be it an individual or corporation. This is especially critical at times of volatile economic conditions and when exploring new business partners. Good quality Know Your Customer processes will ensure two key benefits:

• Comfort that ProPay is not exposing itself to excessive risk.
• Sufficiently detailed knowledge of the customer’s identity, business type and validation to sell products which are appropriate and which adhere to ProPay’s Payment Services Agreement.  

KYC is a requirement of all financial service businesses and mandated by the US Patriot Act. These requirements are in place to ensure that only appropriate individuals participate in financial transactions. ProPay has taken additional steps to ensure that our KYC procedures meet or exceed those mandated for financial institutions. KYC is one of the most important front end risk processes as we attempt to keep fraudsters and high risk merchants out of our portfolio.