Header image**: The Incredibles.
Recently, the news that "the aunt picked up the mobile phone and used password-free payment to swipe the balance" has attracted attention. On this mobile phone that opened password-free payment, the suspect easily swiped more than 5,100 yuan through 8 clothing store purchases.
Was this just a coincidence? We have counted 855 password-free payment-related complaints on Black Cat Complaints, and found that passwordless payment brings convenience but also its risks.
As stated in the promotional slogans on some platforms, passwordless payments do make users "one step ahead", but it seems difficult to determine exactly where this "step" will go - whether it is a more enjoyable experience, a more convenient life, or a "hole" for lost money.
Be careful! Don't get into the pit!
What are the pitfalls of passwordless payment?
According to the content of the complaint is coded and classified, in the complaint involving password-free payment,The most popular is "unknowingly opened password-free payment".Nearly half of the complaints reported that users were "privately" opened passwordless payments without their knowledge or consent; The second is to be deducted without secret and "stolen" when you don't know it. In the face of software that is rarely used or even never used, or a company that has never been heard of, users who complain often ask the "soul triple question" in confusion when they see the bill that is automatically debited:What is this money for? Who deducted my money? Why can they deduct my money directly?
After reviewing the process of the disappearance of money, some users found that they had been misled or induced to open password-free payment. With the activation option automatically checked when paying, the vague guidance of "0 yuan order" and "fast payment", and the small and shallow prompts, it is easy for users to be "approved" to open password-free payment without paying attention.
For example, the Weibo member lottery activity that was complained by many users has inadvertently completed the whole process of informing the charge and password-free payment: "Unknowingly, the ** that pops up by mistake, direct deduction, There is no prompt to be deducted and the interface for entering the payment password, only to find out afterwards that there is a very, very small and transparent line of words on the interface, which shows **xx yuan at a time, and you won't find it if you don't look carefully!" I haven't activated any password-free payments. ”
Password-free makes payments smoother and smoother, but it also brings new troubles. From paper money to digital, the real sense of money has been weakened, and password-free payment has cut the last threshold for spending money, and consumption has become more rapid and impulsive. Entering a password is a reminder and confirmation, and without this step, users may accidentally touch the screen or accidentally touch a button and pull money out of their pockets, or they may change their minds in a few seconds and have to entangle with customer service for the order that has been paid for. In particular, special products that are difficult to refund, such as train tickets and concert tickets, can only pay a handling fee or higher if you are not careful.
In addition, password-free payment may reduce the "bargaining chips" of consumer rights protection, such as encountering a detour, lack of catty and other situations, want to say "then I won't give you money", a collection of money has sounded: the money has been given, this is more troublesome.
Some software even has forced consumption or arbitrary charges, such as automatically changing from second-class to first-class seats when paying password-free, ** purchasing members, and the actual fee is much higher than the advertisement. In order to get a little discount to open password-free payment, users may not be able to use these discounts when actually deducting money: "Tick Travel first induced me to open Alipay password-free payment, and did not inform me that the coupon could not be used before opening and when purchasing a weekly card, and before placing an order, it was also displayed after the reduction of 13 yuan**, but the coupon was not used when the automatic deduction was made." "In this way, disputes involving refunds or rights protection related to passwordless payments ranked third in the number of complaints, second only to unknowingly being opened and debited.
Under what circumstances is password-free payment?
Easy to "step on thunder"?
The most complained about software or companies were travel and audio-visual entertainment, with 104 complaints each. There are also many complaints about life, social networking, and shopping. Since Apple mobile phones involve Apple ID and payment channels, the most complained about is the Apple support of system services; Complaints against apps such as Douyin, Tantan, and Alipay are also relatively concentrated, involving situations such as membership renewal and token recharge.
In all complaints,There are 136% is related to auto-renewalPassword-free payment is often bound to auto-renewal, or the auto-renewal project is deducted without the user's knowledge.
Passwordless payments make users face greater financial losses when they are scammed or lose their mobile phones. Some users click on suspected fraudulent links or scan unknown***, resulting in account information being stolen, and the balance being "stolen" through passwordless payment; There are also cases of theft or theft of large sums of money after finding a mobile phone.
Password-free payment losses
Is it just "small money"?
The minimum amount involved in complaints related to password-free payment is only 1 yuan, and the maximum is 74,000 yuan, with an average amount of 939$7. Some people don't care about "small money" just to seek justice, and some people have suffered heavy losses but have no way to seek help.
More than half of the complaints involved less than $100, but there were still 28 complaints with an amount of more than $5,000. Among the software or services with more than 10 complaints, due to the high number of complaints involving more than 10,000 yuan, the average amount of litigation involved in Alipay and Microsoft's help and support reached 6,799 respectively1 yuan, 3468$6.
The average amount of litigation involving the elderly and minors is well above the overall average. 11.1% of the complaints were related to minors, with an average amount of 2,9954 yuan, the average amount of litigation involved in the game egg boy party reached 34242 yuan, ranking third among all complainants. 2.5% of the complaints were related to the elderly, with an average amount of 3,771$1.
Some elderly people and minors have little experience in using mobile phones and are not aware of the consumption implications of online payment, and password-free payment is even more invisible. However, the deduction reminder of some software is not in place, and it is often discovered by parents or children after spending a large amount. One of the complaints with the highest amount was that the elderly were induced and urged to recharge by the anchor, and spent more than 70,000 yuan through password-free payment within three months.
How to pay passwordlesslyUnconsciously
Infiltrate life?
We selected four payment platforms such as WeChat and Alipay and 14 consumer platforms such as ** and JD.com, and counted the opening of password-free payment. On quite a few platforms,The opening of password-free payment is not a "deliberate" thing- When placing an order for a selected product, the system will use password-free payment as the default payment method; After clicking the button to complete the payment, the activation of password-free payment will also be completed.
With auto-ticked payment methods, a smooth onboarding process, and sometimes a lack of follow-up notifications, passwordless payments are likely to be initiated unintentionally. Under the "unguardable", some users questioned in the black cat complaint: "Why is it turned on by default?" Why should users be careful every time they make a payment, and whether this trap has reappeared? Why can't the payment interface just pay and have something else attached? ”
For the situation that it is necessary to take the initiative to set up password-free payment, the platform does not hesitate to shout loud slogans such as "password-free payment, one step faster" in the activation interface, and seize keywords such as security and convenience to promote password-free payment.
The terms of the agreement related to the activation of password-free payment are often overlooked in this process. In the software we reviewed,:Only WeChat, Pinduoduo, and Didi Chuxing require users to manually check the agreement when communicatingOther software either has been checked by default, or the button is set to "agree to the agreement and enable password-free payment", and the specific terms of the agreement are linked in inconspicuous gray print below.
Among these lesser-noticed protocols,Almost every case exempts liability for damages caused by the loss of a mobile phone, etc., and treats all payment instructions initiated through the service as the user's own actions. Take Alipay's Payment Authorization Service Agreement, which appears most frequently, as an example, which clearly states: "Unless Alipay does not operate or transmit information in accordance with the instructions of the specific third party or your authorization, or the operation or transmission instructions are incorrect, Alipay shall not be liable for the losses arising from this service." Such losses and liabilities shall be resolved by you and the specific third party, or you shall be solely responsible. ”
However, for users who have suffered losses for no reason, the result of "self-responsibility" is obviously unacceptable. On the Black Cat complaint platform, there were as many as 330 complaints related to password-free payment involving fraudulent swiping, accounting for 38% of all complaints6%。"I've always used an Android phone, and I've never even used an Apple device. Why can WeChat on Android phones be inexplicably bound to Apple's passwordless payment, and I was not notified when I paid? ”
This loss may not be a small amount. Bank of China's small-amount password-free signature can reach a single upper limit of 2,000 yuan, and the total amount of **use first and pay later is determined by the credit score, which can reach a high of 20,000 yuan. In addition, most platforms do not set a limit on the number of times a password-free payment can be used in a single day, and the accumulation of small amounts of multiple transactions also brings huge potential risks to users.
Cancel password-free paymentYes
"Dead ends"?
Compared to the activation that can be achieved in a few simple steps, the termination of a passwordless payment is relatively complex. In the process of canceling Douyin's password-free payment, users will be repeatedly reminded that if they are concerned about security, they can turn on the password-free payment secondary confirmation function, which has not appeared on the activation interface before. If the user still insists on canceling the password-free payment, the software will also pop up a pop-up window asking the user to select a reason for closing and saying "will continue to improve".
In practice, termination may not be just a "hassle" with a few more steps. Statistics on Black Cat complaints show that there are about 108% of the complaints related to passwordless payments related to the difficulty of terminating the contract. Some users said that they were prompted that there was an in-progress order when they closed the password-free payment authorization and could not close it, and after looking up, the so-called "in-progress order" was Ctrip's "train ticket saving task", which could only be completed by booking a hotel. Under similar unreasonable preconditions, many terminations have reached an impasse, "Password-free payment has been terminated for several years, and it has been shown that the termination is being made, and the customer service has not dealt with it." ”
Passwordless payment does bring convenience on some occasions, and the potential risk cannot constitute a "one-vote veto" against it. However, whether or not to enjoy this convenience should be left to the user to choose on the basis of clarifying the risks, rather than allowing them to enter the game through inducement or even coercion, resulting in a situation where they do not know what happened until the outflow of money.
Take a look at your phone's settings, maybe there is a passwordless payment you don't know about?
With regard to digital consumption and mobile phone use, we have also done the following reports:
Automatic renewal, what do you owe me to pay back**, and you have to scan the code to order? The clause is three thousand zhang, which line do you read? Counting and reminiscing is like a water flow of 1TB, and it can't cure the memory anxiety of contemporary people, what they need, it's just a most "simple" TV set My grandmother, who is chasing more bosses every day.
Data: Feng Songxuan, Lin Keying, Tu Yiqiu, Yin Yiyuan, Su Chang, Yang Chuchu.
Visualization: Yin Yiyuan, Tu Yiqiu.
Copywriter: Lin Keying, Feng Songxuan
American editor: Yang Chuchu.
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