“It’s as if the Three Stooges had been given the assignment of introducing a new and safer way for consumers to pay at some of the biggest retail stores. CurrentC is the new smartphone payment system from a consortium of retailers, including Best Buy, WalMart, Target and Sears, all hurting from poor sales,” Jefferson Graham writes for USA Today. “The system is currently being test-marketed at some “confidential” locations. And this week, the company behind it had to admit some really damaging news: the system has already been hacked. Before it’s even launched.”
“The odds that you’ll ever see CurrentC rolled out nationally are slim to none,” Graham writes. “CurrentC, run by the Boston-based Merchant Customer Exchange (known as MCX), has the misfortune of following in the footsteps of Apple’s hugely successful mobile payment launch, which nabbed 1 million new customers in three days and has drawn rave reviews. Apple Pay is the most consumer friendly mobile payment system we’ve seen yet. It solves the security hurdle (just who are you giving your credit card to?) and speed (fumbling for your wallet and credit card.)”
“Instead of fingerprint technology, CurrentC uses the clunky QR code system, an idea whose time has yet to come. To register, you have to give MCX your social security number and banking information. And, the system has already been hacked. Would you trust these folks with your info?” Graham writes. “Prediction: one by one, in weeks, if not days, many of these partners will backtrack, and end up signing with Apple….”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unlike CurrentC, Apple doesn’t save your transaction information. With Apple Pay, your payments are private. Apple Pay doesn’t store the details of your transactions so they can’t be tied back to you. That is what Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid et al. hate about Apple Pay and why they currently won’t accept it.
Boycott non-cash payment systems from any company that willfully turns off NFC in an effort to block the vastly more secure, much more private, and far easier-to-use Apple Pay service.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Heysailor” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Meijer first to break MCX ranks, keeps Apple Pay support at its 213 stores – October 30, 2014
Feeling the heat, MCX CurrentC consortium suggests possible future switch to NFC – October 30, 2014
Analyst: CurrentC retailers likely to blink and support Apple Pay – October 29, 2014
Why CurrentC will beat out Apple Pay in the end – October 29, 2014
How to punish Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, and others who block Apple Pay – October 29, 2014
iPhone users and Android settlers raid reviews of CurrentC payments app – October 29, 2014
Retailer-backed MCX Apple Pay rival has already been hacked; testers’ email addresses stolen – October 29, 2014
Why Walmart, CVS and Rite-Aid really hate Apple Pay: They can’t track your buying habits – October 29, 2014
CurrentC retailers’ conundrum: MCX contract expressly bars Apple Pay acceptance – October 29, 2014
Retailers like CVS and Rite Aid that block Apple Pay are taking a big security risk – October 28, 2014
Apple Pay tussle with CVS, Rite Aid the first shot in mobile payments war – October 28, 2014
In one week, Apple Pay already No. 1; used more than all other mobile payment systems combined – October 28, 2014
Alibaba’s Jack Ma says open to working with Apple on Apple Pay – October 28, 2014
Tim Cook blasts CVS, Rite Aid over Apple Pay blockade: ‘You only are relevant if your customers love you’ – October 28, 2014
Seeking personal data, Walmart, Best Buy, and others won’t let shoppers enjoy Apple Pay privacy – October 27, 2014
Boycott CVS and Rite Aid – October 27, 2014
Bad business: CVS and Rite Aid antagonize their most well-heeled customers by blocking Apple Pay – October 27, 2014
CVS stores reportedly disabling NFC to shut down Apple Pay – October 25, 2014
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Apple’s iOS dominates in richer countries, Android in poorer regions – March 25, 2014
Twitter heat map shows iPhone use by the affluent, Android by the poor – June 20, 2013
iPhone users smarter, richer than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Yankee Group: Apple iPhone owners shop more, buy more, remain more loyal vs. other device users – July 20, 2010
Why I oughta……
Nyuk, nyuk …
Talk about a day late and a dollar short.
Isn’t “Why I oughta” from The Bowery Boys?
it’s a genuine Moeism.
Stooges? Bowery?
I honestly can’t remember.
CurrentC you can have my social security number 000-00-0000
That number is taken already. It’s been given out to all the illegals coming over from Mexico
gotta get em’ registered Democrat first.
You and I may not be far off politically, issue for issue. But your incessant whining and inability to consume ANY information without immediately funneling it through a political filter — and then constant needing to regurgitate the information back at us is f-ing exhausting on the receiving end.
Newsflash. No politician is as good as you might hope. None is as bad as their opponents would have you believe.
It’s a little challenging living here in the gray world of reality, but by golly it makes you a much better party guest — not to mention TECHNOLOGY message board community member.
(Sorry, it must be all the ads here in the run up . . . I snapped.)
uh, I was responding to Splatt’s initial “political” comment.
A comment with which you wholeheartedly agree. I am surprised that you did not make it first. Why don’t you save everyone on this forum some aggravation and take a trip to the border to start building that wall.
Melvin, you sure are mean-spirited. If only you would reach out to others, afterall, we are all brothers in the family of man. This land is your land, this land is my land, from Californi to the New York island…Melvin, this land was made for you and me. 🙂
Thank you very much, midwestmac. Thanks for showing that you can hold a political viewpoint without having to attach it to everything. Thanks for showing that you can hold a political viewpoint without being a glasshole about it.
Let’s return to a point at which we can work together for the common good.
I just gagged on a s’more.
why do you think they would want to register democrat ?
maybe they are so happy to get across the border and get a below minimum wage job picking crops on big corporate farms, that they will register republican – just like the farm and orchard owners who make big money off of cheap illegal labor, by giving them those jobs.
then let them apply for immigration legally like every other generation of nationalities before them. At no juncture in my comments did I condone the hiring of illegal aliens,
At your leisure, please read the definition of “illegal.”
Last time I talked to an immigration attorney, INS was processing applications from 2003, and that was in about 2011. So INS is about 8 years behind on applications.
then, that’s the way it is.
Stupid laws don’t count.
There are a number of good names used yo describe disobeying stupid laws. Think about it.
Control of a nation’s borders is not “stupid law.” It is the primary function of any sovereign nation.
Fsck it, why bother. Whatever.
botvinnik, you are the anti “whatever.” Do bother.
Thank you, Miss Jane.
Please, hannahjs. Do not do the Jekyll and Hyde thing. Sometimes you sound so damn reasonable. And then you kiss up to botty. You are judged by the friends that you keep.
I loves you, Melvin,
Don’t let her take me
Don’t let her handle me
And drive me mad
If you can keep me
I wanna stay here with you forever
And I’ll be glad.
…And then all these people would become “too expensive” for those who prefer underpay their folks.
All this ain’t that easy, my friend!
actually, it is.
“Off of”, really???? it’s “from”.
There is only one political party that has been convicted in Federal Court for Vote Fraud and it is the Republican Party. The former head of the New Hampshire GOP, if memory serves correctly.
The problem is not voter fraud- the problem is voter suppression and the authors of all these new voter suppression bills just happen to be Republicans and the language just so happens to conform to Koch Funded ALEC’s model bill.
As to language:
One is a Democrat the party is The Democratic Party- not the Democrat Party (in the US). Tebaggers are not members of the Republic Party- they are tea bagging tools of the Republican Party a.k.a. GOP (Gang of Perverts).
it’s Tea Party not Tea Baggers.
Tea Party Teabaggers. They are all Republicans- just the crazy right wing. Used to work with the GOP until the crazy folk took over. The old school Republicans are all gone now- many to the Democratic Party.
I have a PhD in Wingnuttery, having come of age in the South and working back in the day for Republican candidates. Went door to door for Reagan/Bush in 1980- in the South when it was not the thing to do in the south.
Lincoln, Reagan, Ford, Eisenhower and T Roosevelt would not be welcome in today’s GOP. Deficits only matter when Democrats are in the White House these days, civil liberties are on the chopping block and they put party ahead of country.
Democrat, Democratic…it’s all the same statism..I really don’t give a rat’s ass about your PhD.
I am not in either party- they both serve big money and give not a damn about us. But the Democrat Party thing is just a right wing dig at Democrats. The GOP of today is grave threat to the functioning of our country.
good. I am all for any and all insults directed towards the Democrat/Democratic party.
Incidentally, the Democratic Party died a long time ago at The Nightmare On Elm Street.
24 minutes? What took botvinnik so long to respond?
I think you caught him sleeping. 😉
It feels like they still need to be punished for even considering such a foolhardy change in the face of all common sense and tech acceptance. Maybe a years worth of impacted negative profits ought show them it’s not nice to fool with consumer data.
Sure. Here pick two…
Dear MDN:
This consortium will be done in by their own incompetence along with the bad news. I may not even need to boycott anything. This may all be over by year’s end.
It will be very interesting to see how many transactions Pay has following the holiday shopping season. And I sincerely hope Apple releases that number and makes a big deal about it! Apple needs to promote Pay like crazy with some TV ads and other marketing blitzes before CurrentC even attempts to launch. That way so many people will wonder why they have to get QR codes, scan this, do it differently here, and why they can’t simply hold their iPhone up to pay that CurrentC will be totally decimated before it’s even rolled out.
If you watched the World Series, Mastercard ran a number of commercials about Apple Pay. Expect much more as we approach the holiday shopping season.
On the other hand, CurrentC is planning a Stoogeathon at your local movie theater next weekend…
Apple needs to take advantage of Christmas shoppers. If I have a choice to purchase products from two stores that are similar, and one takes ApplePay and one doesn’t, which one do you think is going to get my business?
I went to Wendy’s the other day, and asked if they took ApplePay, the people there were unfamiliar with it. Coincidently, when checking my email later that day, I got an email from Wendy’s informing me that they indeed except ApplePay.
It’s going to take time for people to familiarize themselves with which companies except it and who doesn’t. A wise retailer should be doing all they can to educate their staff as well as informing the public they except ApplePay.
It’s like a magnet that can pull in potential shoppers. I can’t see how Apple can lose this battle. It’s such a huge win win for retailers and consumers.
“Except” does not equal “accept,” above. You meant the latter word throughout your post.
Don’t use the Apple logo when saying Apple Pay. Refer to their guidelines documentation.
Insult to the great comedic trio
Oh, a wisenheimer!
Yeah, this thing is dead before it even launched.
A committee-designed data acquisition system wants you to provide your bank account number, SSAN and drivers license number for input into one location that is in no way accountable to you or controllable by you. What could possibly go wrong? What, you say, it already has?
Two choices here, play or don’t play. Since the consortium players all still take credit and debit cards, if I need them I can use that. This looks like a game with NO upside for the MCX members (As if merchants could exchange customers anyway. These guys poisoned their own mindset when they chose their name. We still get to choose.)
Like most small business owners, I hate credit card processing companies and the fees they take from every purchase a customer makes with a credit card. recently I decided to switch credit card processing companies, which means a new terminal. I simply said “I want to be able to take Apple Pay”, and First Data said, we handle those, and here’s the equipment you need. Didn’t need to worry about my bank, or Apple, or any other bank, and we’re good to go. 500 grand to ask to get on board with MCX?? Fat chance.
Boycotting is fine, but writing bad reviews is better. Give 1 star reviews on Yelp and mention lack of Apple Pay. Write a negative 1 star review in the App Store. And write to retailers telling them that you won’t shop there.
I only have one problem with that strategy. Three weeks from now, CVS, Rite-Aid, Best Buy and others will backtrack and decide to turn on their NFCs and resume accepting Apple Pay. What will then happen with all those 1-star reviews? Will all those who gave them one star only because they didn’t accept Apple Pay now go back and revise their reviews? I’m not quite sure that will be the case.
The ratings were for the MCX app, just to get their attention when the unwitting started to download it and give it a try later when system is activated. The one star ratings will remain a red flag.
If they turn NFC back on, Pay will start working again.
Stop using the Apple logo when saying Apple Pay. Refer to their guidelines documentation.
I’m just saying.. It makes you look like an illiterate douche.
So you’re saying if I use “Pay 4 U” on my business I don’t look cool!
I’m not going to call you the illiterate douche; I’ll just say that many of us check MDN on occasion from our office computers, which are still overwhelmingly Windows, and instead of that neat little Apple logo, they show some weird character (perhaps Chinese?) that likely has nothing to do with Apple (the company), or apple (the fruit).
there are douches that can read?
They will just have to earn their reputations back.
That is the just price of pissing off your own customers and a warning to others who want to mine customers instead of serve them.
@Predrag,
I hear what you’re saying, and yes, many people won’t (or can’t) go back and change their reviews. However, that’s what makes negative reviews so powerful in online directories. It hits them hard… really hard. While ratings and reviews in some cases can and will be altered, for the most part the damage is lasting and recovery from it takes a long time.
When they start to see a bunch of 1 star reviews for a CVS that’s right next to a Walgreens with 5 star reviews and it’s due to CurrentC versus Apple Pay, CVS management will look to stop the bleeding. And the same applies to the other merchants.
CurrentC? You’ve been Zune’d. You will soon be circling with the Browns in Super Bowl.
Is MCX publicly traded?
Everyone forgets there is a win win case. Like JC Penny’s you can get their card and link to in on iPhone. That way both can win. If you want to.
My friend loves penny’s and gets lots of coupons tied to their card.
Just saying. Options.
EN it is Penneys. Just saying.
MCX and CurrentC reminds me of Adobe & Flash. Bad technologies for mobile consumer devices.
Apple Pay for iPhones, CurrentC for Android, sounds fair to me!
I wonder how long it will take before Apple flips the switch and ‘cuts out the middle man’ like CurrentC is trying to do? Just reroute the transactions to some little bank in Nevada with a branch built right next to their data center in Reno. Sneaky, Apple.
I don’t think Apple wants to be a bank, but they would almost certainly partner with a card provider that lowered its fees.
But customers don’t really see the fees, and credit cards often give them back to the customer as rewards. So lowering fees doesn’t do anything good for a customer.
In theory if everyone stopped using credit cards prices would come down, but that is not going to happen without some more immediate benefit to customers for lowering merchants fees.
I have to say that using Amazon to buy stuff gives you access to an electronic record of purchase 9 months later when it goes wrong and you need to send it back with a proof of purchase.
Using Apple pay keeps no record that can be tied to a product and the likelihood that 9 months later i could find the paper till receipt for a £50 whatsit is zero.
What? I bought a couple Panasonic ERVs from Amazon to go into new house construction and when one failed upon installation and I tried to get it replaced or refunded, they refused. I wasn’t too impressed with Amazon, particularly their rep for customer service.
I also sent them an iPad 4 in perfect condition with all accessories in the original pristine box, and instead of giving me full credit, they gave me partial credit. I have pictures of how pristine it was when I sent it, but you can’t fight Amazon.
I’m done with Amazon.
As for Apple Pay, it’s tied to your credit or debit card, and so the transaction is recorded the way it has always been recorded by your credit or debit card company.
You still get a receipt of the transaction with all items bought, so proof-of-purchase for warranty or whatever isn’t a problem.
Returns isn’t a problem either. We must clear up a very common misconception about Apple Pay first, though.
When you add a credit card to Apple Pay, “a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted, and securely stored in the Secure Element” on your iPhone. This number never changes, i.e. it’s not unique per transaction, it is in effect a never-changing credit card number (maybe longer than normal) that is semi-publicly readable. What IS unique is the DAN “along with a transaction-specific dynamic security code” when you tap the NFC reader.
It is not that vendors/retailers can’t track your purchases, like many are thinking. It very much seems like they can, it’s just that “your actual credit or debit card numbers are never shared by Apple with merchants or transmitted with payment” (emphasis mine). So if a store gets hacked and CC numbers are stolen, the DAN can’t be used by the thief like a normal credit card can.
Going the other way, Apple never tracks the DAN (which exists solely on your iPhone), and so never collects transaction info or your purchase history.
So refunding money actually dead simple: Tap iPhone, terminal reads the DAN and confirms to the customer rep that it’s the same as your original purchase DAN. Refund is then authorized, you tap a second time to generate a unique transaction for it.
The one hitch is if you lose the iPhone you made the purchase with, because the DAN generated from the same credit card will be different for every device. I’m not sure it matters that much though; normal credit cards get lost all the time, and they have no problems refunding to a new card with new numbers and expiry dates.
All quotes are direct from Apple’s own page. If anyone has an alternate interpretation, feel free to correct me: https://www.apple.com/iphone-6/apple-pay/
Following? If you come first, how can you be following?
I may be old fashioned here, but I can’t fathom the idea of giving my SSN to the world’s largest retailer, or any retailer. If I’m applying for credit, that’s one thing but just so I can buy stuff out of my own bank account or gift card? It seems like that is just a superhighway to ID theft, especially given retailers’ pathetic record lately on security.
“superhighway to ID theft”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I liked it so much, I gave you 15 5-star votes. Yes, I hacked the system.
So does this mean that if for whatever reason you owe them money, like for instance they let your account be hacked, they can not only raid your bank account lime the theives themselves but once that’s cleaned out can get payments direct from your social security benefits too? At this rate they can give up actually bothering to sell you things at all.
Apple needs to put Apple Pay on the market globally in a fast phase to become the true heroes among customers. Who knows how many bad CurrentX systems are cooking up around the world.
The rest of the civilized world uses something called a Debit Card.
Who needs Apple Pay?
It’s as if the Three Stooges had been given the assignment of PR for CurrentC.
“many of these partners will backtrack, and end up signing with Apple”
You don’t need to sign with Apple, just have a working NFC terminal. If you build it, your customers will come . . . with money in hand.
Correction… with iPhone in hand 🙂
“(Apple) nabbed 1 million new customers in three days”
It would have been a lot more if Apple were able to deliver their backlog (mine included) iPhone 6’s to those who placed orders.
So many companies especially utilities, gas, electrics, phone want you to sign up for automatic pay from your checking account. Its so easy to start! But no one tells you how to stop! Close your bank account?
Any retailer who claims to want to protect our privacy, and uses CurrentC is lying. CurrentC is all about the information that they will glean from every transaction we make.
It is high time someone took on Waltons. My money is on Apple.