Mobile Lads employs a superb, zero hardware, no download solution for secure mobile commerce. One of the primary components of their continually developing portfolio of technologies is xmVerify, whose authentication/security capabilities allow for normal online shopping to be digitally signed by the actual mobile device’s number and validated over a patented, secure SSL technology.
Financial institutions like top credit/debit card issuer Chase Corp. (CCF), as well as merchants, like the recently humiliated Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT – whose data breach has been pegged by card fraud expert Rippleshot as approaching an incredible $2.5B plus in the aggregate), shoulder the vast majority of credit/debit card fraud losses (about 60/40 respectively), but consumers nevertheless rank the problem among their chief concerns due to the potentially catastrophic impact a worst-case scenario would have on their lives. According to Unisys Security Index survey data from 2012, well over half of all Americans were seriously concerned about someone stealing and using their credit card information. While institutions take the brunt of the impact, the associated costs to consumers in terms of sheer logistical hassles alone are quite daunting and this general risk landscape makes the market for secure digital transactions, especially when it comes to mobile, a strong growth market for investors to be aware of.
With the 2013 Nilson Report indicating some $11.27B in credit/debit card fraud losses for 2012 and DoJ data indicating that total financial losses attributable to identity theft were around $24.7B last year, the market for fraud prevention technology is obviously huge, especially with more and more of the bulk of transactions being done digitally, online and/or via mobile device. A huge market, but also one that is growing by leaps and bounds globally, with no signs of slowing down in sight. Indeed, the 2014 Nilson Report data shows that in the U.S. alone, general-purpose card transactions are set to swell some 58% by 2018, reaching around $120B. The future of the transaction space seems clear and as broader mobile and smartphone usage for transactions increases among consumers, the demand will only become greater.
Despite recent reports which suggest current users are wary of in-store mobile tracking by retailers – like the one out of pioneer in omnichannel “voice of customer” feedback, OpinionLab, which says 77% of consumers don’t want stores tracking their mobile – mobile POS usage is slowly gaining ground. Driven largely by fear over identity theft and privacy concerns, consumers have been reluctant to jump ship from the card to the phone and this customer receptiveness data regarding in-store tracking gives us a good read on the underlying consumer sentiment when it comes to using mobiles in the store, but as secure systems like those offered by Mobile Lads increasingly come to the fore, this trend is likely to shift more and more rapidly. POS retail accounts for roughly 93% of total U.S. retail dollar volume and recent data from Javelin Strategy & Research suggests that Mobile POS, while only 0.01% of the total retail POS market in 2012, is on track to increase 11-fold by 2018, topping out around $5.4Bin just four years.
The xmVerify TAS (Transaction Authorization System) is a promising tool for addressing the needs of this rapidly growing sector. A powerful, patented component of MOBO’s much larger portfolio of technologies, xmVerify TAS is ideal for shielding customers from fraud via real-time 2-way mobile authentication in both card not present transactions (typically over the phone or online) and corporate purchase card approvals. Given the lay of the land, xmVerify TAS clearly represents a new way forward for mobile transactions and it seems likely that something along such lines will invariably become an industry standard. Because customers get the additional option of personally verifying the transaction after it has been run through the xmVerify authorization server, several of the key inroads for identity thieves are walled-off and it would literally require simultaneous acquisition of the card/number/mobile device and the customer’s PIN number in order to successfully mount an attack breach the protocol. Additionally, xmVerify TAS sports some of the most advanced cryptography available, which is compatible with the widest variety of mobile platforms in existence today.
Further advantages of xmVerify can be seen in tools like the xmVerify CAS (Consumer Authorization System) that allows two-way mobile authorization to address things like costly overdrafts, or banks obtaining real-time/on-the-spot authorization from users before they increase limits or rates (as they are required to do in Canada for instance). This 2-way street also means that banks or retailers can offer special incentives, reminders, or other advice to regular customers with ease.
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