Category: Featured News

A pilot program is now underway using QuickPay for WeChat customers in the country.

McDonald’s is now running a pilot project using QR code payments with a cashback offer. Customers using WeChat can get 50% cash back when they use the QuickPay service. This is exclusive to select restaurants in South Africa.

The goal is to encourage people who are already using the social messaging app to pay with their smartphones.

Participating restaurants are located in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Customers using the WeChat mobile app are being offered a special 50% cashback offer. This is mean to encourage them to use the QuickPay QR code payments at McDonald’s in a participating location.

This incentive is meant to help to encourage customers to try the mobile payments for the first time. By showing them how easy it is to pay for an order simply by presenting the QR codes at the point of sale so they can be scanned, McDonald’s hopes that consumers will be taken with the service and will continue to use it.

The QR code payment cashback offer is available to the first 20,000 customers to use the service.

Those customers will receive 50% cash back when they pay for their meals with their smartphones. According to the McDonald’s South Africa chief marketing officer, Daniel Padiachy, “We are continuously searching for innovative ways to enhance our customers’ experience.” He added that “We believe that WeChat’s Quick Pay will further assist us in upholding these principles.”

The WeChat app first launched in the country in November 2015. The app is owned by Tencent, the ecommerce giant from China. Payments through the service have been made possible in South Africa through a partnership with Standard Bank.

WeChat makes it possible for users to make P2P transfers as well as to scan QR codes to make payments in-store at any of 30,000 merchants across the country that support the SnapScan platform. The mobile app can also be used to purchase wireless services such as airtime and data, as well as to pay certain utility bills.

While Quick Pay is functioning within the SnapScan WeChat feature, that QR code payments option is currently available exclusively at McDonald’s.

Consumers are being cautioned to be exceptionally careful of public WiFi hotspots and fake apps.

With shoppers out by the millions today, trying to find the best deal, Black Friday mobile security efforts will be critically important. Cybercriminals know that consumers will be downloading mobile commerce apps and will be tapping into public WiFi hotspots. This provides them with the perfect opportunity to launch their scams.

Anyone planning to use their smartphones should be aware of these types of fraud so they can protect themselves.

Anyone hoping not to have to deal with Black Friday mobile security problems will need to inform themselves. They will also need to take precautions. Fake m-commerce apps are expected to abound, as will fake Wi-Fi hotspots in busy locations such as malls. A growing number of security firms have been reminding consumers to take care before blindly trusting an application or internet connection.

Hackers love opportunities such as Black Friday mobile security breaches to grab private information.

Two of the companies that have tried to warn consumers of the types of mobile security threats that can occur on days like today are RiskIQ and Skycure.

Mobility strategist Brian Duckering of Skycure blogged that “Cyber criminals are increasing our risk of using mobile devices while shopping, whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday.” He added that “Going to physical stores and connecting to risky Wi-Fi networks, or shopping online both pose increasing risks we should all be aware of.”

RiskIQ, an enterprise security firm, said that there is a greater cyber security risk for smartphone users this year than there was in 2015. Due to the larger number of mobile device users, there are also more active cyber criminals. They target shoppers using their mobile phones to discover products or even make the purchases while using in-store WiFi.

This year, RiskIQ predicts that nearly a third (30 percent) of online Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending will be over mobile devices. At the same time, Skycure’s forecast is that mobile payments will be used three times as much this year as last year. These open the doors to more Black Friday mobile security issues and it’s up to consumers to protect themselves.